When people are in a positive mood, they often see others as happy, and when they feel down, they tend to view others as sad. However, this pattern does not hold when people interpret the emotions of dogs, according to new research from behavioral scientists at Arizona State University.
The study found that priming people into a positive emotional state by showing them cheerful images did not significantly change how they perceived dog emotions. In fact, in a follow-up experiment, the effect reversed: participants who were made to feel upbeat rated dogs as looking sadder, while those in a negative mood saw the dogs as happier.
“In this domain of how people understand dog’s emotions, I’m continuously surprised,” said Clive Wynne, professor of psychology and director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at ASU. “I feel like we are just scratching at the surface of what is turning out to be quite a big mystery.”
The research aims to better understand human biases in perceiving animal emotions. Holly Molinaro, president and senior animal welfare scientist at Animal Wellbeing Solutions and first author on the study, said: “If we can better understand how we perceive animal emotions, we can better care for them.” The findings were published in PeerJ.
For their experiments, researchers used videos featuring three dogs—Oliver (a 14-year-old mixed-breed), Canyon (a 1-year-old Catahoula), and Henry (a 3-year-old French bulldog)—displaying positive, neutral or negative reactions prompted by their owners. For example, treats or toys created positive responses; exposure to disliked stimuli such as vacuum cleaners produced negative ones.
In the first experiment with 300 undergraduate students, participants viewed standardized images designed to induce positive, neutral or negative moods before watching video clips of the dogs. They then rated each dog’s happiness or sadness and level of excitement or calmness. While mood priming shifted participants’ own feelings successfully, it did not affect their ratings of dog emotions.
“It just didn’t work the way that it does when you do this with humans,” Wynne said.
A second experiment involved another group of 300 undergraduates who were shown only dog-related images for mood priming. This time an effect was observed—but in reverse: “All those that saw the happy dog images rated the dogs as more sad. And all those who saw the sad dog images rated the dogs in the videos as happier,” Molinaro explained.
Researchers also noted that simply watching videos of dogs—even those appearing unhappy—tended to lift viewers’ moods.
Wynne emphasized gaps in human understanding of canine emotion despite thousands of years living alongside them: “People and dogs have been living intimately with each other for at least 14,000 years. And in that time, dogs have learned plenty of things about how to get along with human beings. And yet our research suggests that there are quite big gaps in how we understand what dogs are feeling.”
Misreading animal emotional cues can result in improper handling or unmet needs for animals under human care. Molinaro and Wynne believe their findings could improve interactions between humans and animals by supporting more accurate and empathetic care.
Arizona State University has been recognized for its innovative work across multiple fields; it was named number one in innovation for eight consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges rankings (https://news.asu.edu/20220911-university-news-asu-no-1-innovation-us-news-world-report-eighth-year?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=asu&utm_campaign=ASURankings&utm_term=USNWR).
