title: The domestication of social cognition in dogs.
abstract: Dogs are more skillful than great apes at a number of tasks in which they must read human communicative signals indicating the location of hidden food. In this study, we found that wolves who were raised by humans do not show these same skills, whereas domestic dog puppies only a few weeks old, even those that have had little human contact, do show these skills. These findings suggest that during the process of domestication, dogs have been selected for a set of social-cognitive abilities that enable them to communicate with humans in unique ways.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. bhare@fas.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hare
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Williamson
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tomasello
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003071:Cognition; D003463:Cues; D004285:Dogs; D005502:Food; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory; D002679:Pan troglodytes; D012919:Social Behavior; D013045:Species Specificity; D014785:Vision, Ocular; D019596:Wolves