Human touch leaves chicks feeling happy, study finds

Gaby Clark

scientific editor

Meet our editorial team
Behind our editorial process

Andrew Zinin

lead editor

Meet our editorial team
Behind our editorial process
Editors' notes

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

fact-checked

trusted source

proofread

The GIST
Add as preferred source

Chicks, just like pets, also benefit from gentle human touch, new research has revealed. Scientists at the University of Bristol have discovered that gentle human interactions do not only prevent fear in baby chicks but also trigger positive emotions. The findings offer new insights into how early-life handling affects the welfare of young farm animals.

Early interactions with humans are known to influence farm animals' behavior and stress levels, yet it has remained unclear whether animals really experience gentle handling as emotionally positive.

In this study, published in Animal Welfare on March 30, researchers from Bristol Veterinary School used a "conditioned place preference" test, a method commonly used in neuroscience to explore what animals remember of past experiences. The key principle is simple, animals should develop a learned preference for places where they feel good/better.

Twenty domestic chicks from a laying hen strain were trained in a two‑chamber set‑up, each marked with different color cues. After their initial preferences were recorded, the chicks completed a series of pairing sessions.

One chamber used gentle human handling, slow stroking and soft speech, and the other used a neutral human presence, still and silent.

When tested after the conditioning sessions, the chicks consistently spent more time in the chamber previously associated with gentle human handling, demonstrating a positive association with this experience.

Crucially, the chicks did not avoid the chamber linked to neutral human presence, indicating their behavior suggested attraction to the gentle‑handling environment rather than avoidance of the neutral human presence.

Dr. Ben Lecorps, Senior Lecturer at Bristol Veterinary School, and the study's principal investigator, said, "Our findings show that gentle human contact can trigger positive emotions in young chicks. The study demonstrates how simple, calm handling has the potential to shape the human-animal relationship from fear-inducing to positive and consequently improve the chicks' welfare."

The study's results highlight how humans can play a meaningful role in shaping animals' early affective experiences, with potential benefits for husbandry practices and welfare assessment frameworks.

More information

Gentle human interactions trigger positive emotions in chicks. Animal Welfare. doi.org/10.1017/awf.2026.10081

Key concepts

animal behaviorlaboratory experimentsbirds

Provided by University of Bristol