Guilty looking dogs don't feel sorry
Dogs who look guilty after breaking a vase are not feeling sorry for their actions, but reacting to their owners response, it has been found.Tests showed that dog owners tendency to attribute a "guilty look" to a dog has very little to do with whether the dog has done something it shouldn't, but if they believe it has.
Researchers tested a series of pets by telling owners their dog has misbehaved (sometimes when it has, sometimes when it hadn't) and monitoring their behavior.
Professor Alexandra Horowitz from Barnard College in New York said a dog’s guilty look is a response to the owner’s behavior, and not necessarily indicative of any appreciation of its own misdeeds ... she added that she was sorry to Fido.
The test involved owners being asked to leave the room after ordering their dogs not to eat a tasty treat. While the owner was away, Horowitz gave some of the dogs this forbidden treat before asking the owners back into the room.
In some trials the owners were told that their dog had eaten the forbidden treat; in others, they were told their dog had behaved properly and left the treat alone. What the owners were told, however, often did not correlate with reality.
Whether the dogs' demeanor included elements of the "guilty look" had little to do with whether the dogs had actually eaten the forbidden treat or not.
Dogs that had been obedient and had not eaten the treat, but were scolded by their (misinformed) owners, looked more “guilty” than those that had, in fact, eaten the treat.
LINKS
Barnard College
In some trials the owners were told that their dog had eaten the forbidden treat; in others, they were told their dog had behaved properly and left the treat alone. What the owners were told, however, often did not correlate with reality.
Whether the dogs' demeanor included elements of the "guilty look" had little to do with whether the dogs had actually eaten the forbidden treat or not.
Dogs that had been obedient and had not eaten the treat, but were scolded by their (misinformed) owners, looked more “guilty” than those that had, in fact, eaten the treat.
LINKS
Barnard College
