We might think that dogs have an innate ability to sense good and bad in people, but new research suggests that may not be the case.
Even after watching humans display acts of kindness and cruelty, the dogs didn’t show a preference. Direct interactions didn’t sway their behaviour and lead them to favour the kinder person, suggesting their judgments might be more nuanced than we initially thought.
The research team from Kyoto University observed 40 pet dogs to investigate how they form reputations of humans. One by one, the dogs watched another dog’s interactions with two humans – one of whom fed the dog demonstrator, while the other withheld dog food. After this observation, the dog would approach the two people, with researchers analysing their behaviour.
The results showed that dogs across all age groups showed no significant preference for the generous person who had fed the dog demonstrator. “It's clear that reputation formation may be more complex than previously thought, even for animals like dogs that closely cooperate with humans,” says researcher Hoi-Lam Jim from Kyoto University.
Previous research conducted at the Wolf Science Center in Austria found that pack-living dogs and wolves didn’t form reputations of individual humans. This may have been because these animals had limited experience interacting with humans, which is why the Kyoto University team undertook this latest study.
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Top image credit: Getty Images
