Background: How do we bond to one another? While in some species, like humans, physical contact plays a role in the process of attachment, it has been suggested that tactile contact's value may greatly differ according to the species considered. Nevertheless, grooming is often considered as a pleasurable experience for domestic animals, even though scientific data is lacking. On another hand, food seems to be involved in the creation of most relationships in a variety of species. Methodology/Principal Findings: In this study, we used the horse training context to test the effects of food versus grooming during repeated human-horse interactions. The results reveal that food certainly holds a key role in the attachment process, while tactile contact was here clearly insufficient for bonding to occur. Conclusion/Significance: This study raises important questions on the way tactile contact is perceived, and shows that large inter-species differences are to be expected. © 2010 Sankey et al.
CITATION STYLE
Sankey, C., Henry, S., Górecka-Bruzda, A., Richard-Yris, M. A., & Hausberger, M. (2010). The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach: What about horses? PLoS ONE, 5(11). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0015446
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