Los dogs They experience emotional contagion because of the smell of the human stressleading them to make more “pessimistic” decisions, according to a new studyled by the University of Bristol and published in Scientific Reports.
Researchers at Bristol Veterinary School wanted to find out whether dogs experience changes in their emotional and learning state in response to odors that cause stress or relaxation in humans.
The team used an “optimism” or “pessimism” test in animals, which is based on the finding that people’s “optimistic” or “pessimistic” choices indicate positive or negative emotions, respectively.
Researchers recruited 18 dog-owner pairs to take part in a series of tests involving different human odors. During the tests, the dogs were trained that when a food bowl was placed in one location, it contained a treat, but when it was placed in another location, it was empty.
Once a dog learned the difference between these container locations, it was quicker to approach the spot with a treat than the empty spot. The researchers then tested how quickly the dog approached novel, ambiguous locations for containers located between the original two.
The researchers found that the stress-triggered odor caused the dogs to slowly approach the ambiguous location of the nearest bowl, an effect that was not seen with the relaxed odor. These findings suggest that the stress-triggered odor may have heightened the dogs’ expectations that this new location did not contain food, similar to the nearby empty bowl location.
“Dog owners know how attuned their pets are to their emotions, but here we show that even the scent of a stressed, unfamiliar human affects a dog’s emotional state, perception of rewards and ability to learn. Working dog trainers often describe stress as being transmitted on the leash, but we’ve also shown that it can travel through the air,” concluded Dr Nicola Rooney, Senior Lecturer in Wildlife and Conservation at Bristol University.
Source: EUROPA PRESS
