Does Work Affect Personality? A Study in Horses
Does Work Affect Personality? A Study in Horses
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0014659
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发表时间：
2011-02-09
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Lunel, Christophe
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hausberger, Martine;Muller, Christine;Lunel, Christophe
人们一再假设，工作特征与人类人格的变化有关，但人格模型仍然经常忽略生活经验的影响。然而，证明个性和工作之间的相互关系仍然是一个挑战，就像对人类一样，许多其他影响因素可能会干扰。这项研究通过比较只有工作类型不同的马的情绪反应来研究这种关系。马是研究这一问题的卓越动物模型，因为它们与人类分享工作活动及其潜在困难，如“人际冲突”或“压抑情绪”。早些时候的一项研究表明，不同类型的工作可能与不同的慢性行为障碍有关。在这里，我们假设工作类型会影响马的个性。因此，对100多匹成年马进行了标准化的行为测试，这些马只在工作特征上有所不同。受试者生活在相同的条件下(相同的住房，相同的食物)，性别相同(长毛)，大多是两个品种中的一个，没有被遗传选择从事目前的工作类型。据我们所知，这是第一次研究工作类型和个性特征之间的直接关系。我们的结果表明，来自不同工作类型的马在总体情绪水平上的差异并不比它们表达情绪的方式(即行为特征)的差异大。最极端的是盛装舞步马，它提供了最高的兴奋成分，以及伏特马，它是最安静的。马匹的工作类型是由马厩经理决定的，主要是根据它们的跳跃能力，但不能完全排除基于个人行为特征的无意识选择。进一步的研究将需要操纵类型的工作。然而，我们的结果与关于人类的报告一致，并建议在评估个性时应更多地关注工作特征。
It has been repeatedly hypothesized that job characteristics are related to changes in personality in humans, but often personality models still omit effects of life experience. Demonstrating reciprocal relationships between personality and work remains a challenge though, as in humans, many other influential factors may interfere. This study investigates this relationship by comparing the emotional reactivity of horses that differed only by their type of work. Horses are remarkable animal models to investigate this question as they share with humans working activities and their potential difficulties, such as "interpersonal" conflicts or "suppressed emotions". An earlier study showed that different types of work could be associated with different chronic behavioural disorders. Here, we hypothesised that type of work would affect horses' personality. Therefore over one hundred adult horses, differing only by their work characteristics were presented standardised behavioural tests. Subjects lived under the same conditions (same housing, same food), were of the same sex (geldings), and mostly one of two breeds, and had not been genetically selected for their current type of work. This is to our knowledge the first time that a direct relationship between type of work and personality traits has been investigated. Our results show that horses from different types of work differ not as much in their overall emotional levels as in the ways they express emotions (i.e. behavioural profile). Extremes were dressage horses, which presented the highest excitation components, and voltige horses, which were the quietest. The horses' type of work was decided by the stall managers, mostly on their jumping abilities, but unconscious choice based on individual behavioural characteristics cannot be totally excluded. Further research would require manipulating type of work. Our results nevertheless agree with reports on humans and suggest that more attention should be given to work characteristics when evaluating personalities.