Balancing the animal affective scales - Can the methodology of human affect balance be translated to other sentient species?
Year: 2026
Type: review
Abstract: Assessing the welfare of non-human sentient animals is a multifaceted scientific endeavour. A human psychology approach that holds promise for application to animals is affect balance, based on the idea that how one feels most of the time is determined by the balance between the separate dimensions of positive and negative affect. Affect balance has been shown to have profound relationships with mental and physical health and well-being in humans. The aim of this conceptual article is to evaluate whether the affect balance methodology might offer a useful integrative measure of the affective/hedonic component of animal welfare and to outline key considerations for its potential application. Due to the variation in human affect balance methods, any attempt to translate them to other species requires first extracting their main underlying principles. We extracted four underlying principles, the first three relating to estimating the frequencies of positive and negative affect over time, and the fourth relating to the integration of positive and negative affect into an affect balance score or category. We then discuss how the theory behind the affect balance methodology can be translated to other species, and the theoretical and practical considerations in the development and validation of potential assessment methods. Altogether, we think that this approach holds great potential for animal welfare science and we encourage empirical studies into this topic.
Authors: Laura E. Webb, J. Elizabeth Bolhuis, Viktor Jurkovich, Allyson F. Ipema, Matteo Chincarini, Angélique Favreau-Peigné, Björn Forkman, Caroline Clouard, Frank Tuyttens, Heather Browning, Laura Menchetti, Margit Bak Jensen, Özkan Elmaz, Radka Šárová, Robert Głogowski, Sandra Düpjan, Stefania Celozzi, Walter Veit, Céline Tallet
Institutions: Wageningen University & Research, University of Veterinary Medicine, University of Teramo, École Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Université Paris-Saclay, Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement, University of Copenhagen, Institut Agro Rennes-Angers, Physiologie, Environnement et Génétique pour l'Animal et les Systèmes d'Elevage, Ghent University, Instituut voor Landbouw en Visserijonderzoek, University of Southampton, Università di Camerino, Aarhus University, Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy Üniversitesi, Institute of Animal Science, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), University of Milan, University of Reading
Language: English
Subfield: Animal Science and Zoology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,860
Award: G475395128
OpenAlex ID: W7203442316