The concept of inequality or injustice, according to a study published in the journal Current Biology, is similar in humans and primates. Recognizing inequality is a tremendously important social empathic skill in human beings. In the investigations carried out, it was discovered that this empathic characteristic of sensitivity to inequity was also experienced by primates. Nobody had dared to carry out this experiment on other types of animals, especially because of the skepticism they showed. Up to now.
A study by comparative psychologists from the Messerli Research Institute of the Vienna University of Veterinary Medicine in Austria has found that dogs react to injustice and inequality in a similar way to humans or primates. That is, they have empathy for other beings.
But, the most important thing is that with the experiment they understood that it is not only dogs that have this ability , but that their ancestors, wolves, also possess it. So we are not talking about a social development that has arisen from the domestication of dogs. Rather, it is a social behavior inherited from your ancestors.
How was the experiment done? Some animals (dogs and wolves, each with their own species) were rehoused in a room with two buzzers (a device that emits a buzzing sound when pressed). When one of the dogs pressed the buzzer, the trainer gave him food, but when his partner dog did, he did not receive a reward. What happened? That the dog that did receive the award sympathized with the injustice of his partner and refused to continue cooperating in the exercise.
This same exercise was carried out with wolves and in the words of experts from the Messerli Research Institute and the Wolf Science Center of the Vienna University of Veterinary Medicine: “When the animals pressed a buzzer, after the trainer asked them to do so and received nothing or a reward of lesser quality compared to their partners for the same action, they refused to participate in the experiment ” . Surprising right?
This test was also carried out on a solitary animal which received no reward and, in the words of scientist Jennifer Esler: “Interestingly, the animals continued easily when there was no mate. This showed that the fact that they themselves did not receive a reward was not the only reason why they stopped cooperating with the coach.
Dogs do have behaviors created through the domestication of humans
It was also reported that there are social behaviors in dogs derived from domestication. In this sense, after the experiment, when introducing the animals in a neutral enclosure, the wolves were reluctant to maintain contact with the point of injustice (the trainer) while the dogs had no problem in socializing with him as if nothing had happened. . Friederike Range, a scientist associated with the project, explained in his report: “Even if these animals do not live directly with humans, they are more susceptible to us. At this point, domestication seems to influence the behavior of dogs. Contact with humans as pets could therefore reduce their behavior in such situations rather than trigger it. “
Therefore, as we can see, we can confirm that dogs understand injustice and have an empathic social character and not only that, but they also have social behaviors inherited from direct ancestors and at the same time their species has been highly conditioned and shaped by contact with humans. Fascinating!
