David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
It?s an Owner?s Scolding That Makes a ?Guilty? Dog
By HENRY FOUNTAIN, New York Times
June 15, 2009
You know that guilty look your dog gets, like when you come home and find it?s chewed up your favorite pair of Manolo Blahniks?
Scientists cannot say, yet, whether your dog is really feeling guilty about such transgressions. But they can say this: your dog?s look is related not so much to what it did, but to what you did.
Alexandra Horowitz of Barnard College?s psychology department studies animal cognition, and has long been fascinated with the way dog owners anthropomorphize their pets? behavior ? ascribing to them human emotions like jealousy and guilt. ?I wanted to look at some of these attributes and see if there?s anything behind them,? she said.
She conducted experiments with dogs and their owners in which the owner showed the dog a treat, told it not to eat it, and left the room. While the owner was absent the dog was given the treat or it was removed. In some of the trials, upon returning the owner was deliberately misinformed ? told that the dog had disobeyed, for example, when it had not eaten the treat. If the owner was told the dog disobeyed, it got a scolding.
Dr. Horowitz found that behaviors associated with the ?guilty look? ? slinking away, ducking the head and dropping the tail, among others ? occurred regardless of whether the dog had disobeyed or not. Instead, what was important was the owner?s reaction. There were far more ?guilty? behaviors when the owners scolded the dogs. The findings are published in the journal Behavioral Processes.
Dr. Horowitz said that the results show that dogs have learned to act in a certain way in response to their owners? behavior: ?We?ve trained them that when they see us angry, they give us that guilty look.?
?I?m not saying they don?t feel guilt,? she added. ?I can?t test that yet. But we generate the context that prompts them to produce this look.?
By HENRY FOUNTAIN, New York Times
June 15, 2009
You know that guilty look your dog gets, like when you come home and find it?s chewed up your favorite pair of Manolo Blahniks?
Scientists cannot say, yet, whether your dog is really feeling guilty about such transgressions. But they can say this: your dog?s look is related not so much to what it did, but to what you did.
Alexandra Horowitz of Barnard College?s psychology department studies animal cognition, and has long been fascinated with the way dog owners anthropomorphize their pets? behavior ? ascribing to them human emotions like jealousy and guilt. ?I wanted to look at some of these attributes and see if there?s anything behind them,? she said.
She conducted experiments with dogs and their owners in which the owner showed the dog a treat, told it not to eat it, and left the room. While the owner was absent the dog was given the treat or it was removed. In some of the trials, upon returning the owner was deliberately misinformed ? told that the dog had disobeyed, for example, when it had not eaten the treat. If the owner was told the dog disobeyed, it got a scolding.
Dr. Horowitz found that behaviors associated with the ?guilty look? ? slinking away, ducking the head and dropping the tail, among others ? occurred regardless of whether the dog had disobeyed or not. Instead, what was important was the owner?s reaction. There were far more ?guilty? behaviors when the owners scolded the dogs. The findings are published in the journal Behavioral Processes.
Dr. Horowitz said that the results show that dogs have learned to act in a certain way in response to their owners? behavior: ?We?ve trained them that when they see us angry, they give us that guilty look.?
?I?m not saying they don?t feel guilt,? she added. ?I can?t test that yet. But we generate the context that prompts them to produce this look.?
