A few months ago my daughter asked me if dogs were smarter than horses.
How would you answer this question?
I think many people would say that dogs are in fact smarter than horses. And that primates are smarter than dogs. And, of course, that we humans are the smartest of them all. After all if we all took an IQ test, we all know which species would come out on top.
However …
This does all rather lead to the question of what we mean by intelligence. Or by being ‘smart’.
Even sticking within our own species there is much awareness now that emotional intelligence (EQ) can have more of an impact on a person’s wellbeing in life that their ‘Intelligence quotient’, or their IQ, the more ‘traditional’ measure of human intelligence.
Thus the answer to the question ‘who is the smartest’ is very much going to depend on what you mean by smart and how you measure it.
If smart means our intellect as measured by an IQ test, then we humans have an advantage as the primary part of the brain tested by an IQ test is the granular dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain that current research indicates only exists in primates and is the most developed in humans.
If we decide ‘smart’ means being able to train yourself to notice, interpret and respond to tiny subtle shifts in another species’ (in this case human) body language that the humans’ themselves are not even aware they are making then the infamous horse, ‘Clever Hans’ had thousands of people confounded for almost two decades.
Or if smart means knowing exactly when it’s 6pm (aka dinner time) without access to any form of (human) time keeping then Daisy, my golden retriever, triumphs over us all.
My point here is that equines are smart in the ways they need to be smart as equines. Dogs are smart in the ways they need to be smart as dogs. Each species has evolved to function – including cognitively – in the ways that best serve the specific needs of that species. To truly appreciate this we humans need to step out of our anthropocentric worldview and start to get curious about life from another species’ perspective.
Coming up next: Why would a horse need to know math? Reimagining the ‘Clever Hans’ story
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