A common refrain among dog guardians is that dogs are unpredictable. But is that really the case — or are we simply not paying close enough attention or misreading the signals they’re giving us?
Recent research has found that people often misinterpret dogs’ emotions and focus too much on what’s happening around them instead of the dogs themselves. The study, led by Arizona State University researchers Holly Molinaro and Clive Wynne, consisted of two experiments.
In the first, participants viewed videos of a dog reacting positively or negatively to various situations — either within the original context the dog was filmed in or against a neutral black background. In the second, researchers mismatched the context: the dog from a positive scenario was edited into a negative one, and the dog from a negative scenario was put in a positive one.
Across both experiments, participants’ responses demonstrated an overdependence on contextual cues when interpreting dogs’ emotional states.
“Our dogs are trying to communicate with us, but we humans seem determined to look at everything except the poor pooch himself,” Wynne said.
The findings further indicated that participants often assessed the dog’s emotions through an anthropomorphic lens. While the research highlights our difficulty in reading dogs’ emotions, it also presents us with an opportunity to confront those errors in judgment and grow into more attentive observers.
“We need to be humbler in our understanding of dogs,” Molinaro said. “Once we can start from a basis of understanding our biases, we can begin to look at our pups in a new light.”
Lady Freethinker is grateful for this research that challenges us to rethink how we view dogs and is hopeful it will inspire stronger connections with our canine companions.
