09/02/2023
We're all quilty of being judgemental from time to time. It could be that time when a colleague double-dipped their samosa inside the community ketchup bowl at the office party (ewww!) or when a friend forgot to wish you on your birthday (so selfish!). But guess what? Humans aren't the only ones judging fellow humans. Dogs judge us too. That's right. Man's
"best friend" might be doing more than just sitting on your bed - and actually be sitting in judgement of you.
Researchers at Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan set out to find whether dogs specifically judge human competence. 74 pet dogs (43 females, 31 males) participated in the study that included pairs of experimenters trying to open a transparent container.
In each pair, one experimenter would be successful at opening the lid and removing the object inside (competent person) and the other would be unsuccessful (incompetent person). The experimenters would repeat their actions twice with different containers. The pairs were then given a third container (either with food or one that was empty), which they would simultaneously try to open. It was found that if the container had food, dogs would look at the competent person longer than the incompetent person, and that female dogs in particular were more likely to approach the competent person.
"We found that female dogs looked significantly longer than males when a person who was competent at opening baited containers manipulated a container previously unknown to the dog. Moreover, the female dogs preferentially approached the Competent person. In other words, their looking direction predicted their subsequent choice behavior," reads the discussion section of the paper.
The findings of the study were published on the ScienceDirect.com website in November of last year.
