Guilt and Embarrassment

In response to Brian - full post here

This is actually quite the interesting topic. I think, in general, I would agree with you. Since there is no reliable way to determine what animal humiliation would look like, it would be difficult to be able to actually determine if a non-human animal has a sense of humiliation.

I also agree that it is likely that a number of animals probably don't experience embarrassment simply because they are not social and would therefore have no use for those feelings; crocodiles don't care about the feelings and thoughts of other crocodiles.

Still, I am wondering about the similarities between humilation/embarrassment and guilt. I am inclined to say that many non-human animals do experience guilt; wolves and dogs come to mind as animals who can feel guilty. It seems that guilt and embarrassment/humiliation function similarly to a similar end. So, it seems, if these two are related, that it's likely that some non-human animals can experience something close to humiliation. However, since guilt and embarrassment are socially learned responses, it seems unlikely that zoos and aquariums would provoke such feelings from non-human animals. Still, it might be the case that more intelligent animals would be able to learn the social cues that would warrant guilt in humans.