Our Ability To Recognise Dogs ’ Emotions Is Shaped By Our Cultural Upbringing

By Emily Reynolds As anyone who’s ever had to scold their dog for stealing food off a plate or jumping onto that oh-so-tempting forbidden sofa can attest, dogs are pretty good at understanding what we’re saying to them — at least when it suits them. Research has also shown that dogs are able to understand some aspects of human communication, perhaps because throughout history we’ve used dogs for their ability to respond to our commands. Words, hand signs and gestures, tone of voice and facial expression — it seems that dogs have the ability to understand them all. But what about human understanding of dogs? Federica Amici from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and colleagues ask just that in their latest piece of research, published in Scientific Reports.  First, the team recruited participants with a variety of experiences with dogs and who grew up in a variety of cultures, each with their own cultural attitude towards the animals. Parts of Europe, for example, have generally dog-positive cultures: people consider their dogs to be part of the family, and they live inside the house. In Muslim-majority countries, on the other hand, dogs live outdoors and are not considered to be family members. The researchers therefore recruited 88 adult and 77 child participants from four demographics: non-Muslim European dog-owners and non-Muslim European non-owners; Muslim non-owners from countries with a majority Islam population but who had lived in Euro...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Cross-cultural Emotion Source Type: blogs