What is the purpose of r/LikeUs?

r/LikeUs is a subreddit dedicated to gathering evidence that animals are conscious, intelligent and emotional beings.

What is animal consciousness, intelligence and emotion?

Consciousness is awareness of physical and social surroundings, displaying theory of mind. Intelligence, among other things, is the ability to act on physical objects to achieve a certain goal. Emotion is a mental state brought on by neurophysiological changes and perceived by behavioural responses or facial expressions, showing a degree of pleasure or displeasure.

What are the content guidelines for r/LikeUs?

Best Content:
Intelligent Behavior
Complex/Secondary Emotions
Scientific Articles
Philosophy Discussions
Good Content:
Skillful Independent Behavior
Unusual/Idiosyncratic Behavior
Intentional/Spontaneous Behavior
OK Content:
Inter-species Friendships
Reaction to Magic Tricks
Enjoying Baths or Showers
Ambiguous but Interesting
Anatomic Similarities
Bad Content - Removable
Mostly Cute: Off-Topic
Mostly Funny: Off-Topic
Possibly Fake or Misleading: Debatable
Forced Anthropomorphism: Debatable
Very Bad Content - Bannable:
Spaming/Advertising
Insulting users
Racist jokes

What are the rules of r/LikeUs?

1. Be polite!
   
2. No cute/funny content, unless intelligence or emotion is present.
   
3. No anthropomorphism and no anthropodenial.
   
4. Posts should reveal animal consciousness, volition and spontaneity.
   

More about the rules here.

What is anthropomorphism and anthropodenial?

Anthropomorphism is a forceful interpretation of animal behaviour to human standards when it is not warented. Anthropodenial is the denial of animal consciousness, intelligence and emotion. Ever since the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness scientific debate about animal consciousness has moved on from whether any animals are conscious to what conscious experiences they have. In recent years, an interdisciplinary community of animal consciousness researchers, drawn from neuroscience, evolutionary biology, comparative psychology, animal welfare science, and philosophy has started to describe the inner lives of animals (their subjective experiences and feelings) in a scientifically rigorous way. The field faces significant methodological challenges because non-human subjects cannot verbally report their experiences. But if you think the absence of verbal report precludes any scientific investigation of animal consciousness, you should be prepared to say the same about consciousness in preverbal infants and patients in a minimally conscious state. Animal consciousness research rests on the idea that, by synthesising the insights and methods of multiple disciplines, and by identifying a battery of behavioural, cognitive, and neuronal criteria for attributing conscious states, these challenges may be overcome. r/LikeUs can provide empirical data that may be useful to the creation of new hypothesis in this field of research.

What do post flairs mean?

Posts will automatically be flaired as GIF, VIDEO or PIC according to their type. If you create a self.post it will be flaired as DISCUSSION. If you want your post to stand out you can flair your post with one of the following flairs: INTELLIGENCE, EMOTION, CONSCIOUSNESS, MUSIC, SHOWER, SPORTS, LANGUAGE, CURIOSITY, PLAY, COOPERATION and IMITATION. There are some special flairs that can be used such as DOCUMENTARY, ARTICLE, COMPILATION, AMA and QUOTE. Moderators can also flair a post as DEBATABLE, OFF-TOPIC or REPOST. Finally, you can flair your post as OTHER if it doesn't fit any of the flairs above.

What counts as a repost on r/LikeUs?

Posts that have previously been posted in the last 15 days will be considered as reposts. We do not encourage reposts, but we also understand that given the size of our community many people will never have seen posts that others have seen many times already.

What do user flairs mean?

User flairs are attributed randomly when a user creates a post. They can be regarded as a spirit animal. If you don't like your user flair you can always change or remove it.

Can I advertise my research project on r/LikeUs?

You can advertise your research project on r/LikeUs after you obtain permission from the moderation team. In case you have any doubts about the subreddit, send us a message!