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Animal Cognition

, Volume 15, Issue 5, pp 851–859 | Cite as

Empathic-like responding by domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) to distress in humans: an exploratory study

  • Deborah Custance
  • Jennifer Mayer
Original Paper
First Online:
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:

Abstract

Empathy covers a range of phenomena from cognitive empathy involving metarepresentation to emotional contagion stemming from automatically triggered reflexes. An experimental protocol first used with human infants was adapted to investigate empathy in domestic dogs. Dogs oriented toward their owner or a stranger more often when the person was pretending to cry than when they were talking or humming. Observers, unaware of experimental hypotheses and the condition under which dogs were responding, more often categorized dogs’ approaches as submissive as opposed to alert, playful or calm during the crying condition. When the stranger pretended to cry, rather than approaching their usual source of comfort, their owner, dogs sniffed, nuzzled and licked the stranger instead. The dogs’ pattern of response was behaviorally consistent with an expression of empathic concern, but is most parsimoniously interpreted as emotional contagion coupled with a previous learning history in which they have been rewarded for approaching distressed human companions.

Keywords

Empathy Emotional contagion Domestic dogs 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Gordon Mayer, Debbie Mayer, Emily Bennett, Emma Collins, Emily Garside, Grace Godfrey, Robyn Palmer, Laurence Muspratt, and Vincent for assistance with testing. Grateful thanks to Pamela Heaton, Rory Allen, Kim Bard, Andrew Bremner, Elisabeth Hill, Andrew Whiten, and Alison Jolly for commenting on earlier drafts of this manuscript. We are indebted to our canine and human participants.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of PsychologyGoldsmiths CollegeLondonUK

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