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Humans love to believe that animals, and especially our pets, experience the same emotions we do, or behave in a certain way for the same reasons we do.

There’s even a term for it – anthropomorphism.

When it comes to our furry canine friends, that’s especially common, and a recent study published in Scientific Reports does back the theory up with regards to certain situations.

The study is based on research in Germany, as per Gizmodo:

The study found that dogs reacted differently when people withheld food from them intentionally or seemingly by accident, indicating that they could tell the difference.

The findings could mean that dogs possess an aspect of cognition often considered unique to humans: the ability to acknowledge the inner workings of others.

The ‘theory of mind’ concept (“our capacity for recognising that others around us have their own thoughts, perceptions, and mental states”) is generally believed to be limited to humans.

However, there is research that suggests that both birds and primates may possess a certain capacity for this, with canines now joining them.

The same test used for birds and primates was modified to test intentionality, dubbed the “unwilling versus unable” task:

The dogs, 51 in total, were separated from their human partners by a glass barrier. But the barrier had a gap that the humans could pass food through, which was demonstrated to the dogs in warm-up tests.

Image: Katharina Schulte

The researchers then set up three conditions for all the dogs to endure: one where the humans were about to give food through the gap but changed their mind and deliberately placed it down in front of them; another where the food was about to be passed through the gap but was then “dropped” before it could reach the dog; and a third where the people tried to give food but were deterred by the gap being blocked.

There was a notable difference in how the dogs reacted to each situation, which study author Britta Schünemann says is an illustration that dogs can tell intention from our actions.

From VICE:

Most significantly, the dogs waited for longer periods in the unwilling scenario before they decided to walk around the partition to get closer to the withheld reward.

The dogs were also more likely to sit, lie down, or wag their tails in this scenario, perhaps because they thought these appeasing gestures might earn them back the treat.

Image: Josepha Erlacher

“They maybe understand: ‘I am not getting this food now, but maybe when I do something right, when I sit down and I’m a nice dog, she will give me the food,’” Bräuer explained. “They expect that she will change her mind.”

Dogs will manipulate you in order to get a treat isn’t groundbreaking news, and the team behind the study does stress that it doesn’t scientifically confirm that dogs possess “theory of mind”.

Further research needs to be done, but the most recent study does “provide important initial evidence that dogs may have at least one aspect of theory of mind: the capacity to recognise intention-in-action”.

The experiment also confirms that your best friend is “profoundly attuned to human actions and behaviours”.

So yeah, there’s a good chance your dog knows when you’re being mean on purpose.

As for cats – I love them, but we all know the shoe is on the other foot.

[sources:gizmodo&vice]