Some dogs can sense when people are lying to them, study finds. Here’s how
Humans and dogs may differ in genetics, but they may be more similar than we think — at least in terms of how both perceive deception.
Understanding that other people hold different beliefs and perceptions is something scientists believed were abilities unique to humans and their closest animal relatives, apes, according to previous studies.
But a recent study shows that dogs also react differently when they know a person is lying.
“We thought dogs would behave like children under age 5 and apes, but now we speculate that perhaps dogs can understand when someone is being deceitful,” co-author Ludwig Huber from the University of Vienna in Austria told New Scientist. “Maybe they think, ‘This person has the same knowledge as me, and is nevertheless giving me the wrong [information].’ It’s possible they could see that as intentionally misleading, which is lying.”
The study was inspired by previous experiments with young children and apes that concluded the two can interpret the behavior or perception of others.
The study, published in the Royal Society journal on July 21, tested 260 trained pure-bred dogs from differing breeds and ages.
In the experiments, researchers placed two covered buckets in a room. One person, the hider, placed food in the bucket and another, the communicator, suggested which bucket the dog should choose.
At the beginning of the study, the communicator always accurately pointed to the food-filled bucket and said “look, this is good, this is very good” while making eye contact with the animal.
Once familiarity was established between the animal and the communicator, researchers began their experiments.
The communicator observed a person place food in one of buckets. Then they would walk out of the room, and the hider would swap the food into another bucket. For some of the experiments, the communicator witnessed the food swap and then left before quickly returning.
In both instances, the communicator selected the now empty container that was first filled with food, regardless of whether they had witnessed the change.
Researchers concluded two-thirds of the dogs in one experiment ignored the advice from the communicator when they knew they were in the room for the food switch, according to New Scientist.
Yet, the dogs would mostly listen to the misleading suggestion when the person had not been in the room, researchers found. They pointed out this may have occurred due to the dogs thinking the communicator made a “’justified’ mistake in good will.”
“There is both genetic and behavioural evidence that dogs are hypersocial, meaning that many dogs have a difficult time ignoring social cues even when another solution might be more advantageous,” Monique Udell from Oregon State University, who was not involved in the research, told New Scientist. “This is a really striking example of just how often this may occur.”
This story was originally published August 6, 2021 at 5:53 PM.
