A new study reveals that "dogs make social and emotional evaluations of people" and deny any food offered by those who are mean to their owner. The findings will be published later this month in the journal Animal Behaviour, reported MailOnline .
The research found that canines have the ability to cooperate with human beings, according to AFP.
Led by Kazuo Fujita, a Kyoto University professor of comparative cognition, the researchers tested three groups with 18 dogs in which their owners role-played the opening of a box. The owners were accompanied by two people who were strangers to the dog.
The owners in the first group asked for help from one of the two persons, but were refused. The owners in the second group sought and received assistance from one of the two individuals. The other person in both groups did not help nor refuse to give assistance.
In the third group, the control group, no one interacted with the owners.
Fujita noted that after these scenarios, the strangers offered food to the dog, and the dogs ignored the person who refused to help their owners. However, they were more likely to accept food from neutral observers.
"We discovered for the first time that dogs make social and emotional evaluations of people regardless of their direct interest," said Fujita, adding that if dogs are acting out of self-interest, then they would just accept food from anyone, making no difference among the dog groups.
"This ability is one of key factors in building a highly collaborative society, and this study shows that dogs share that ability with humans," he said.
This attribute of dogs is said to be found in a comparatively small number of species, which consists of humans and other primates.
But Fujita explained that not all primates are cooperative, citing a similar study on tufted capuchins that may have this ability, "but there is no evidence that chimpanzees demonstrate a preference unless there is a direct benefit to them."
