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Bee positivity is contagious [1]

['Gail Sherman']

Date: 2025-10-24  

Good moods can be contagious. Humans often adopt the mood of fellow humans. Other mammals, and even some other non-mammalian vertebrates like parrots and zebrafish, do the same. For the first time, researchers have observed this in an invertebrate species, the humble bumblebee.

In a paper published in Science, researchers found that even the relatively simple brains of insects are capable of complex mechanisms. To avoid anthropomorphizing, the authors use the term "positive affective cognition," but optimistic bees appear to make other bees optimistic.

The researchers induced a "good mood," or positive affect, in a bee by providing an unexpected reward of sugar water. They then introduced a second bee that had not experienced the reward. They found that the newly introduced bees would then forage, indicating that they shared in their cohort's optimism.

By conducting the experiment in different environments, where the bees could touch but not see each other, or vice versa, the researchers determined that the mode of transmission was visual. They were unable to determine the exact mechanism, which will no doubt be a subject of future studies.

Previously:

• Bees are now legally fish in the state of California

• The Beekeeper's Lament: Must-read book on bee life, and death

• Robotic drone bee pollinates flowers

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