Can dogs (Canis familiaris) detect human deception?
In a series of experiments, dogs were allowed to choose between two containers, one of which contained a food reward. In Experiments 1 and 2, a cooperative human tester pointed to the baited container on half the trials, and a deceptive human tester pointed to the empty container on the other half of the trials. Dogs learned to approach the cooperator more often than the deceiver. Inanimate cues (black and white boxes) were used as the "cooperator" and "deceiver" in Experiment 3. As was the case in Experiments 1 and 2, the dogs learned to approach the "cooperator" box more often than the "deceiver" box. Thus, the experiments indicate that dogs are sensitive to the correlation between cues and their outcomes but offer no support for the idea that dogs understand human intentionality.
Petter
Mark
M
Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4J1, Canada.
Musolino
Evanya
E
Roberts
William A
WA
Cole
Mark
M
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003463:Cues; D008192:Deception; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D004285:Dogs / Q000523:psychology*; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D006801:Humans