Pet dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) release their trapped and distressed owners: Individual variation and evidence of emotional contagion
Domestic dogs have assisted humans for millennia. However, the extent to which these helpful behaviors are prosocially motivated remains unclear. To assess the propensity of pet dogs to actively rescue distressed humans without explicit training, this study tested whether sixty pet dogs would releas...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7162277 2023-05-15T15:50:56+02:00 Pet dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) release their trapped and distressed owners: Individual variation and evidence of emotional contagion Van Bourg, Joshua Patterson, Jordan Elizabeth Wynne, Clive D. L. 2020-04-16 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7162277/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32298391 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231742 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7162277/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32298391 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231742 © 2020 Van Bourg et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231742 2020-04-26T00:31:02Z Domestic dogs have assisted humans for millennia. However, the extent to which these helpful behaviors are prosocially motivated remains unclear. To assess the propensity of pet dogs to actively rescue distressed humans without explicit training, this study tested whether sixty pet dogs would release their seemingly trapped owners from a large box. To examine the causal mechanisms that shaped this behavior, the readiness of each dog to open the box was tested in three conditions: 1) the owner sat in the box and called for help (distress test), 2) an experimenter placed high-value food rewards in the box (food test), and 3) the owner sat in the box and calmly read aloud (reading test). Dogs were as likely to release their distressed owner as to retrieve treats from inside the box, indicating that rescuing an owner may be a highly rewarding action for dogs. After accounting for opening ability, dogs released the owner more often when the owner called for help than when the owner read aloud calmly. In addition, opening latencies decreased with test number in the distress test but not the reading test. Thus, rescuing the owner could not be attributed solely to social facilitation, stimulus enhancement, or social contact-seeking behavior. Dogs displayed more stress behaviors in the distress test than in the reading test, and stress scores decreased with test number in the reading test but not in the distress test. This evidence of emotional contagion supports the hypothesis that rescuing the distressed owner was an empathetically-motivated prosocial behavior. Success in the food task and previous (in-home) experience opening objects were both strong predictors of releasing the owner. Thus, prosocial behavior tests for dogs should control for physical ability and previous experience. Text Canis lupus PubMed Central (PMC) PLOS ONE 15 4 e0231742 |
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Research Article Van Bourg, Joshua Patterson, Jordan Elizabeth Wynne, Clive D. L. Pet dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) release their trapped and distressed owners: Individual variation and evidence of emotional contagion |
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Research Article |
description |
Domestic dogs have assisted humans for millennia. However, the extent to which these helpful behaviors are prosocially motivated remains unclear. To assess the propensity of pet dogs to actively rescue distressed humans without explicit training, this study tested whether sixty pet dogs would release their seemingly trapped owners from a large box. To examine the causal mechanisms that shaped this behavior, the readiness of each dog to open the box was tested in three conditions: 1) the owner sat in the box and called for help (distress test), 2) an experimenter placed high-value food rewards in the box (food test), and 3) the owner sat in the box and calmly read aloud (reading test). Dogs were as likely to release their distressed owner as to retrieve treats from inside the box, indicating that rescuing an owner may be a highly rewarding action for dogs. After accounting for opening ability, dogs released the owner more often when the owner called for help than when the owner read aloud calmly. In addition, opening latencies decreased with test number in the distress test but not the reading test. Thus, rescuing the owner could not be attributed solely to social facilitation, stimulus enhancement, or social contact-seeking behavior. Dogs displayed more stress behaviors in the distress test than in the reading test, and stress scores decreased with test number in the reading test but not in the distress test. This evidence of emotional contagion supports the hypothesis that rescuing the distressed owner was an empathetically-motivated prosocial behavior. Success in the food task and previous (in-home) experience opening objects were both strong predictors of releasing the owner. Thus, prosocial behavior tests for dogs should control for physical ability and previous experience. |
format |
Text |
author |
Van Bourg, Joshua Patterson, Jordan Elizabeth Wynne, Clive D. L. |
author_facet |
Van Bourg, Joshua Patterson, Jordan Elizabeth Wynne, Clive D. L. |
author_sort |
Van Bourg, Joshua |
title |
Pet dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) release their trapped and distressed owners: Individual variation and evidence of emotional contagion |
title_short |
Pet dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) release their trapped and distressed owners: Individual variation and evidence of emotional contagion |
title_full |
Pet dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) release their trapped and distressed owners: Individual variation and evidence of emotional contagion |
title_fullStr |
Pet dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) release their trapped and distressed owners: Individual variation and evidence of emotional contagion |
title_full_unstemmed |
Pet dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) release their trapped and distressed owners: Individual variation and evidence of emotional contagion |
title_sort |
pet dogs (canis lupus familiaris) release their trapped and distressed owners: individual variation and evidence of emotional contagion |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7162277/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32298391 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231742 |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7162277/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32298391 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231742 |
op_rights |
© 2020 Van Bourg et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231742 |
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PLOS ONE |
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15 |
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4 |
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