Humans (Homo sapiens) judge the emotional content of piglet (Sus scrofa domestica) calls based on simple acoustic parameters, not personality, empathy, nor attitude toward animals.

The vocal expression of emotion is likely driven by shared physiological principles among species. However, which acoustic features promote decoding of emotional state and how the decoding is affected by their listener's psychology remain poorly understood. Here we tested how acoustic features of piglet vocalizations interact with psychological profiles of human listeners to affect judgments of emotional content of heterospecific vocalizations.