I think we are more capable of analyzing the emotions we feel, which probably makes them more intense.
If I’m dying, and I know I’m going too die, I will be thinking about my family and what my death might do to them. If I’m a deer, I doubt I’m thinking about all that while I’m doing. I think that adds a level of intensity to it.
I mentioned it in a different comment, but it has been put forward before that we may feel less intense emotions exactly because of our extra reasoning capabilities.
One example put forward is that we understand an ending to our pain. For some animals, they may not know all possible ends to their feelings, and thus might feel intense sensations of fear, pain, helplessness, etc. There have been some horrific experiments done in the past to illustrate that many animal species learn that they have no way out of painful situations and just give up when options are exhausted. A human might endure knowing that it is just an experiment, but a dog knows no reason that something like an electric shock experiment would eventually stop. Our ability to self sooth, whether it is irrational or not, seems to help us in these situations.
I think we are more capable of analyzing the emotions we feel, which probably makes them more intense.
If I’m dying, and I know I’m going too die, I will be thinking about my family and what my death might do to them. If I’m a deer, I doubt I’m thinking about all that while I’m doing. I think that adds a level of intensity to it.
I mentioned it in a different comment, but it has been put forward before that we may feel less intense emotions exactly because of our extra reasoning capabilities.
One example put forward is that we understand an ending to our pain. For some animals, they may not know all possible ends to their feelings, and thus might feel intense sensations of fear, pain, helplessness, etc. There have been some horrific experiments done in the past to illustrate that many animal species learn that they have no way out of painful situations and just give up when options are exhausted. A human might endure knowing that it is just an experiment, but a dog knows no reason that something like an electric shock experiment would eventually stop. Our ability to self sooth, whether it is irrational or not, seems to help us in these situations.