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New research has uncovered that stressed bees tend to make negative decisions and lose their usual enthusiasm for life. Scientists at Newcastle University in the UK have discovered that bumblebees exhibit emotional responses to adverse events, similar to humans.
The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, reveals that bees lower their expectations of rewards when they are under stress, affecting how they interact with and pollinate flowers.
In an experiment, researchers trained bees to associate different colors with positive or negative outcomes. Bees were able to distinguish between colors representing a sweet reward location and those indicating a location with a lower reward. They learned this distinction and chose the appropriate location based on the color shown.
After learning these associations, some groups of bees were subjected to a simulated predator attack while another group experienced no external stress.
The bees that had been attacked were less likely to interpret ambiguous colors as signaling high rewards compared to control bees. As a result, they visited locations with lower rewards more frequently.
2024-10-08 19:15:02
Article from phys.org