- Dogs respond similarly to emotional sounds from both humans and other dogs
- In an experiment where they heard crying human sounds and isolation whines from other dogs, dogs reacted by expressing negative emotional behaviors
- The research indicates that dogs are able to distinguish between positive and negative emotional sounds and are sensitive to emotions in humans
Cecile Borkhataria For Dailymail.com
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Researchers have found that dogs tend to match their emotional state to the emotional sounds they hear in humans and other dogs.
Dogs responded similarly to emotional sounds from both humans and dogs, and expressed negative emotional states when they heard negative emotional sounds.
The research indicates that dogs are able to distinguish between positive and negative emotional sounds and are sensitive to emotions in humans.
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When comparing positive and negative sounds from both species, dogs expressed more behaviors indicating a strong reaction and negative emotional states after hearing negative emotional sounds
WHAT IS EMOTIONAL CONTAGION?
Emotional contagion is a basic component of empathy, defined as an automatic and unconscious emotional state-matching between two individuals.
Emotional contagion has been demonstrated in various animal species ranging from primates to rodents.
Several studies have indicated that dogs also exhibit emotional contagion, even towards other species such as humans.
There is evidence that dogs are sensitive to emotional states in humans, and a 2015 study showed that that dogs are even capable of discriminating between different emotional expressions in human faces.
The researchers, based at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, found that the dogs in their study responded in patterns that indicate emotional contagion for negative sounds of humans and dogs.
Emotional contagion is a basic component of empathy, defined as an automatic and unconscious emotional state-matching between two individuals.
Emotional contagion has been demonstrated in various animal species ranging from primates to rodents.
Several studies have indicated that dogs also exhibit emotional contagion, even towards other species such as humans.
When comparing positive and negative sounds from both species, dogs expressed more behaviors indicating a strong reaction and negative emotional states after hearing negative emotional sounds.
To conduct the study, researchers recruited 53 adult pet dogs of different breed with their owners as well.
The experiment was conducted in two experimental rooms.
Each room had a loudspeaker, hidden inside one of three wooden boxes, from which audio stimuli were played back.
The researchers shifted the speaker between the three wooden boxes randomly to avoid the potential for the dogs to become used to the speaker’s location.
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For testing human emotional sounds, laughing was played as a positive sound and crying as a negative sound.
For testing dog emotional sounds, play barks were used as a positive sound and isolation whines as negative sounds.
As a control, non-emotional sounds were also played.
These consisted of sounds such as a human female neutral voice talking, and sounds from non-animal sources such as the sound of rain or leaves rustling in the wind.
Each room had three wooden boxes hidden behinds walls, and the researchers shifted the speaker between the three wooden boxes of each room randomly to avoid a potential situation where the dogs could become used to the speaker’s location.
Schematic sketch of the experimental rooms (1 and 2) with the required objects (three wooden separation walls and boxes per room to hide the loudspeaker, one blanket, and one chair per room)
A blanket was placed on the floor for the dog, and a chair next to it for its owner.
During each experiment trial, the owner sat next to the dog and was told to ignore their dog while different sounds played.
After several experiments recording and observing the behavior of each dog, the researchers found that the dogs responded similarly to both human and dog sounds, but they expressed more ‘freezing’ behavior after hearing sounds from other dogs.
The researchers wrote that their research ‘furthermore indicates that dogs recognized the different valences of the emotional sounds, which is a promising finding for future studies on empathy for positive emotional states in dogs’.
The researchers wrote that their research ‘furthermore indicates that dogs recognized the different valences of the emotional sounds, which is a promising finding for future studies on empathy for positive emotional states in dogs’
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