Dogs are smart enough to understand whether a human is doing something on purpose or has he/she done something unintentionally.
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This is based on a novel study conducted by German researchers from the University of G?ttingen and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, who compared dogs' spontaneous reactions to intentional and unintentional human behaviour, which is also one of the basic elements of the Theory of Mind.?
For this, they conducted an experiment where they looked at how dogs reacted when food rewards were withheld from them, either intentionally or unintentionally. The experiment involved 51 dogs -- 27 female and 24 male -- of a variety of breeds.
The dogs were separated from the human by a transparent barrier. The experimenter offered the dog pieces of doggy treats through a long vertical gap in the middle of the barrier.?
In one group (termed as the unwilling condition), the experimenter suddenly withdrew the reward through the gap in the barrier and placed it in front of themselves.
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In the second group (termed as the unable-clumsy condition), the experimenter brought the reward to the gap in the barrier, and tried to pass it through the gap but dropped it 'accidentally'.?
In the third group (named unable-blocked condition), the experimenter again tried to give the dog a reward but was unable to do so since the gap in the barrier was blocked.?
In the three experiments, the dogs didn't get the treat and they remained on the tester's side of the barrier.
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Researchers predicted that if dogs are able to recognise the intentions of the humans, they would wait longer before approaching the reward in the unwilling condition where the dogs weren't supposed to get the reward. And that's exactly what happened.?
The dogs didn't just wait longer in the unwilling condition than others, but they were also more likely to lie down or sit -- actions that are often interpreted as appeasing behaviours. They also stopped wagging their tails.?
Study author Britta Sch¨¹nemann explained, ¡°The dogs in our study clearly behaved differently depending on whether the actions of a human experimenter were intentional or unintentional. Nevertheless, the findings present important initial evidence that dogs may have at least one aspect of Theory of Mind ¨C the capacity to recognise intention-in-action.¡±
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