A fish eye view of the mirror test

Abstract

Reactions to a recent study suggesting that cleaner wrasse can pass the mirror self-recognition test (Kohda et al. in PLOS Biology, 17(2), e3000021, 2019) reveal more about scientists’ biases than about self-awareness. Scientists should base conclusions about species’ abilities based on the corpus of data on that species rather than on a single test or preconceived expectations based on phylogeny alone.