[Animals] Dogs (especially females) recognize "clumsy" and "selfish" humans

[#Wittels-]

Dogs are very perceptive when it comes to evaluating human behavior. A new study affirms that they know how to distinguish when a human is "clumsy" or "selfish", especially females.

Have you ever messed up in front of your dog and it makes sense that he would look at you as if to say “how clumsy is this human”? They are not your imagination: a study carried out by psychologists from Kyoto University has concluded that dogs know how to assess the skill or clumsiness of people when performing a task, as well as whether they are generous or selfish with them; and that females are especially perceptive in these aspects.

THE FOOD EXPERIMENT
In the experiment, two people tried to open a transparent container with food inside in front of several dogs (30 in total). One of the people opened it with ease, while the other pretended to have trouble opening it. The process was then repeated with two other containers, so that the dogs were clear that the "problem" was not that one container was more difficult to open, but that one of the people was more skilled than the other.

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When the test was carried out with the third container, the dogs already seemed to have a clear idea of which of the two was the more skilled human: the animals stared longer at the person who seemed to be more "competent", knowing that this person would open with ease the container; on the contrary, with the "incompetent" person it already seemed clear after a few seconds that he was not going to be able to open it.

Throughout the experiment, the researchers also found that females are especially perceptive when it comes to assessing "clumsiness": when it was already clear which was the competent human, females fixed on him longer and tended to ignore them sooner. to the "clumsy" human, regarding what the males did, who seemed to maintain a certain trust in him.

GENEROUS OR SELFISH HUMANS
The researchers say that this is not the first time that similar behavior has been observed in dogs and refer to a previous study, which found that dogs can recognize when a human is generous or selfish towards them and modify their behavior accordingly.

In this experiment, the behavior of three groups (puppies, adult dogs with a family, and adult dogs in a shelter) was compared with respect to two people who offered them food: one of them (“generous experimenter”) showed them their food and immediately let them eat, while the other (“selfish experimenter”) showed them the bowl but ate something himself before allowing the dogs to eat. A second test was then conducted in which the dogs could decide whether to feed them the “generous” or the “selfish” person.

The dogs, especially the females, reacted more quickly and enthusiastically with the humans they judged to be more trustworthy.

The results showed a clear learning: while in the first test the dogs showed no preference between the two experimenters - indeed, some were even more enthusiastic about the "selfish" experimenter -, in the second the adult dogs seemed to have learned which was the most generous human and went to him preferentially, in addition to having a shorter reaction time: the animals with families took one second longer to react when the "selfish" experimenter called them compared to the "generous" experimenter, and two seconds longer when the case of shelter animals.

On the contrary, the pups did not show such a significant difference between the two experiments, and the latency (the time they waited to approach after receiving permission to eat) between the first and second tests was practically the same. This difference in behavior can be attributed to the greater experience of adult dogs, especially in the case of shelter dogs, which have reasons to be more suspicious of selfish behaviors from humans.

DOGS ADJUST THEIR BEHAVIOR ACCORDING TO NEED
Based on the results of these two experiments, the researchers conclude that dogs know how to form an opinion about a human's skill level and possibly adjust their behavior by trusting more of those they judge to be more "competent." This is related to the fact that, as pets, their level of well-being depends on their caretaker.

Skill, however, is not everything: being animals that live in a community, their well-being depends on a balance between the skill of their keepers and their behavior towards them: the authors mention other studies in which dogs have shown likely to spend more time with humans who are generous with them, even if they are not skilled, than with those who are more skilled but do not pay as much attention to them.

Dogs' preference for people they judge to be more "competent" intensifies in situations of need, such as when they lack food or water.

 

The authors also point out that these behaviors can be adjusted to the situation of need and mention an interesting observation that other authors have made: they observed that dogs tend to spend more time near the person who normally fills their food bowl when the person is empty or when mealtime approaches, while the rest of the time it does not show such a marked predilection between the different inhabitants of the house.

These preferences are also shown when carrying out specific activities, such as playing or walking: dogs tend to approach first the person who performs these activities with them on a regular basis or who offers them a better experience. This seems to show that dogs can divide their appraisal of a person in a particular environment and show a "segmented" preference depending on the situation.

 

Link: https://www.nationalgeographic.com.es/mundo-animal/perros-sobre-todo-hembras-reconocen-humanos-torpes-egoistas_19861