Even DOGS are jealous! Students display jealous behaviors when they only imagine their owner interacting with another dog
- The scientists studied 18 dogs and their owners to see the dog’s jealousy
- They saw their human being near a fake dog and then were split by a screen
- Even when the dog could not see its owner, they showed signs of jealousy
- This shows that dogs have the ability to imagine their owner petting another dog and envying him.
Dogs are devout companions who offer unwavering allegiance to their humans, but new research has exposed the full extent of their green-eyed inner monster.
Anecdotal evidence from owners is now backed by scientists who have found that pet dogs are jealous when their human pet is petted by another dog.
But research has also shown that dogs can be envied just by imagining their owner is hooking up with another dog, even when they can’t see the interaction.
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Anecdotal evidence from owners is now backed up by scientists who have found that pet dogs are jealous when their human caress another dog.
“Research has supported what many dog owners firmly believe: dogs exhibit jealous behavior when their human companion interacts with a potential rival,” said Amalia Bastos, lead author of the University of Auckland study .
“We wanted to study this behavior more thoroughly to determine if dogs could mentally represent, like humans, a situation that aroused jealousy.”
Scientists are interested in studying jealousy in animals because it is related to a certain degree of self-knowledge, which is a complex cognitive trait not seen in all species.
As part of a study, 18 dogs and their owners were recruited and moved to a room. In that room was a very realistic polar cylinder or artificial dog.
Research has found that dogs can be envied just by imagining that their owner is hooking up with another dog, even when they cannot see the interaction (stock)
The pets, still at the gates, watched as their owners petted the fake dog and a screen was placed between the pet and the person so that the dog could not see the rival or its owner.
The researchers observed the canine behavior at this time and saw that the pets were pulling hard on the lead and expressing telltale signs of jealousy, such as growling and looking agitated.
This, the researchers say, means that even though dogs could not see their love and attention for a human rival, they had the mental capacity to anticipate it and, as a result, be jealous.
For the fleece-lined cylinder, the dogs were much less jealous, indicating that their jealousy is reserved only for things they consider a threat.
“These results support claims that dogs exhibit jealous behavior,” Bastos said.
They also provide the first evidence that dogs can mentally represent social interactions that cause jealousy.
“Previous studies confused jealous behavior with play, interest, or aggression, because they never tested the dogs’ reactions to the owner and social rival being present in the same room but not interacting.”
“There is still a lot of work to be done to establish the scope of the similarities between the minds of humans and other animals, especially when it comes to understanding the nature of the emotional experiences of nonhuman animals,” he adds.
“It’s too early to tell if dogs experience jealousy like we do, but now it’s clear they react to situations that cause jealousy, even if they occur out of sight.”
The full findings are published in the journal Psychological Science.