text: how does the experiment work that proves that dolphins are self aware? apparently elephants touch a white cross on their forehead with their trucks which they see when looking in a mirror but surely dolphins can't touch their own foreheads so what is the equivalent test they use for dolphins to show they are self aware? same thing with dolphins. they drew a colored mark on the side of the dolphin and measured how stressed they were, as well as how they reacted. if they didn't think it was on them, they would ignore it or try to touch the mirror. since they knew it was them, they would contort themselves to see it better and see it from different angles. same way you would inspect something in a mirror.