Dolphins are considered one of the most similar animals to humans in various personality traits.
Despite the fact that dolphins have not shared a common ancestor with humans for nearly 95 million years, some experts have successfully identified a number of personality traits that they share with humans.
While dolphins are known as intelligent mammals, a new study by researchers from the University of Hull indicates that dolphins can score high in some of the five major personality traits, widely used to assess human personality characteristics, including openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The study focused on 134 bottlenose dolphins from around the world, with their personalities evaluated by staff who regularly worked with them. Results showed that dolphins exhibit social and curious behaviors, much like humans, despite their environments being completely different. The lead author of the study, Dr. Blake Morton, stated, "This is the first time that dolphin personalities have been studied in this way. Dolphins are remarkable and ideal animals for this type of study because, like primates, they are intelligent and social. We concluded that if factors such as intelligence and sociability contribute to personality formation, dolphins should possess similar personality traits to monkeys or humans." He added, "We have known for some time that dolphins resemble us in many ways. For example, you can watch dolphins on television and understand that they are very intelligent and social animals." During the study, researchers evaluated 56 male and 78 female dolphins from eight countries around the world, such as Mexico, France, Sweden, and the Bahamas. While experts found similarities between the personalities of dolphins and humans, there are still many clear differences. Dr. Morton said, "I don’t want people to misinterpret this and say that humans and dolphins share the same personality traits; they do not, in fact. It's simply that they resemble us in certain traits."
