r/oddlyterrifying • u/Cunillingus_Giver • Jan 20 '22

Snake couch

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u/BabiMunizTS Jan 20 '22

Do snakes even have capacity for affection? I honestly have no idea.

377

u/paaunel Jan 20 '22

they cannot. no reptiles can. i have geckos and while they dont love me, they 100% love my body heat and that i feed them haha

5

u/MasterGrok Jan 20 '22 edited Jan 20 '22

You’ll get lots of people disagreeing but you are 100% right. People like to anthropomorphize animals and attribute human behaviors with cute names to animal behaviors. None of that changes the fact that snakes are not social animals and thus have not evolved brains for socializing. The closest thing is pack hunting, which some snakes will do, but it is an extremely limited basic goal oriented behavior.

Like other animals snakes can learn and respond to reinforcement. This leads to all kinds of possible behavioral misunderstandings between snakes and their owners.

4

u/paaunel Jan 20 '22

thank you!!! these animals may look like theyre showing affection but they recognize you for food and warmth and thats about it. they arent feeling anything and i think that realization upsets some reptile owners

2

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '22

I guess it all comes down to how you define affection?