Can Humans truly understand Dogs’ emotions? New research says NO; Find out why- Asianet Newsable

Read Full Article

Humans and dogs have a unique and strong bond for ages. They are considered as the best animals to live with humans. But a new study reveals that our understanding towards the emotions of puppies might not be as accurate as we think. This new study says that humans often misunderstand dogs' emotions and this happens due to interpreting their own feelings onto the animals. 

The Study on Human-Dog understanding:

The recent researchconducted by Holly Molinaro, an animal welfare scientist and PhD student at Arizona State University was published in the journal Anthrozoos. It stated two experiments designed to explore how humans think and understand about dogs' emotions.

Experiment One: A few videos of dogs were shot in the positive context. i.e, offering a treat. And a few videos are shot in negative context, i.e, dogs reacting to  a vaccum cleaner. They were shown to participants. 

Experiment Two: The same videos were edited to show dogs in opposite contexts, such as a dog filmed in a positive situation being placed in a negative context.

Over 850 participants were asked to rate the happiness of the dogs in these videos.

ALSO READ: 7 Best Indian Dog Breeds for Beginner Pet Parents

Key Findings

Scientists found out that the participants were actually judging the dog's emotion based on the surrounding situations and not the dog's behavior. 

For instance, a dog reacting to a vacuum cleaner was assumed to be as unhappy, while the same behavior in a different context, such as seeing a leash, was interpreted as happy.

“People do not look at what the dog is doing, instead, they look at the situation surrounding the dog and base their emotional perception on that,” Molinaro said.

This study revealed that humans tend to project their own emotions onto dogs. This is a phenomenon known as anthropomorphizing. This can blur the true understanding of a dog's emotional state.

The authors concluded saying, “We highlight that extraneous factors besides the dog itself are major contributing influences on how humans perceive dogs' emotions”.

ALSO READ: Pet Parenting: 7 questions to ysk Yourself before getting a furry friend