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- Title
Beware of Strangers: Dogs' Empathetic Response to Unknown Humans.
- Authors
Rivera, Micael M.; Meyers-Manor, Julia E.
- Abstract
Simple Summary: While dogs will rescue their owners in distress, no study has investigated whether or not dogs may do the same for strangers. This study explores this question by recording dogs' behaviors, heart rate variability, and approach in response to a trapped calm or distressed stranger. The results show that whether the unfamiliar human was distressed or not did not affect whether the dog opened the door. Additionally, there was no difference in heart rate variability, how they approached the stranger through the door, or time near the door between dogs who were presented with a distressed or calm stranger. Dogs that did open the door to approach the unfamiliar human were described as less fearful by their owners. Dogs that opened also showed less aggression and fear when they approached the human behind the trapped door compared to dogs that did not open. These results show that dogs may not be able to show emotional contagion or respond differentially to distressed unknown humans. It also may be vital for dog owners to be present in order for complex behaviors such as emotional contagion and helping to occur towards strangers. Empathy is a complex cognitive ability that has been studied in many social animals, including dogs. Previous studies have found that dogs would rescue their distressed owner more quickly than a calm owner and that dogs respond physiologically and behaviorally to the sound of crying strangers. However, no studies have explored the empathetic and emotional contagion capabilities of dogs towards strangers in rescue paradigms. In the present study, a stranger was placed behind a clear door and was told to cry (distress) or hum (neutral). The dogs' door opening, stress behaviors, tone of approach, and physiological responses were measured. Dogs did not open more frequently or more quickly for the stranger in the distressed condition compared to the neutral condition. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the behavioral or physiological indicators of stress across conditions. It was also found that non-openers were reported by owners to have more fear and, in the empathy test, were more aggressive and fearful in their tone of approach. These results suggest that dogs may be less likely to exhibit empathy-like behaviors to unknown humans in an unfamiliar environment and that owners may be necessary to moderate a dog's stress to show empathetic behaviors.
- Subjects
HEART beat; CONTAGION (Social psychology); EMOTIONAL contagion; DOG owners; DOG rescue
- Publication
Animals (2076-2615), 2024, Vol 14, Issue 14, p2130
- ISSN
2076-2615
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3390/ani14142130