Skip to main content

Dogs (Canis familiaris) evaluate humans on the basis of direct experiences only.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Nitzschner, M; Melis, AP; Kaminski, J; Tomasello, M
Published in: PloS one
January 2012

Reputation formation is a key component in the social interactions of many animal species. An evaluation of reputation is drawn from two principal sources: direct experience of an individual and indirect experience from observing that individual interacting with a third party. In the current study we investigated whether dogs use direct and/or indirect experience to choose between two human interactants. In the first experiment, subjects had direct interaction either with a "nice" human (who played with, talked to and stroked the dog) or with an "ignoring" experimenter who ignored the dog completely. Results showed that the dogs stayed longer close to the "nice" human. In a second experiment the dogs observed a "nice" or "ignoring" human interacting with another dog. This indirect experience, however, did not lead to a preference between the two humans. These results suggest that the dogs in our study evaluated humans solely on the basis of direct experience.

Duke Scholars

Altmetric Attention Stats
Dimensions Citation Stats

Published In

PloS one

DOI

EISSN

1932-6203

ISSN

1932-6203

Publication Date

January 2012

Volume

7

Issue

10

Start / End Page

e46880

Related Subject Headings

  • Male
  • Humans
  • General Science & Technology
  • Female
  • Dogs
  • Discrimination, Psychological
  • Choice Behavior
  • Behavior, Animal
  • Attention
  • Animals
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Nitzschner, M., Melis, A. P., Kaminski, J., & Tomasello, M. (2012). Dogs (Canis familiaris) evaluate humans on the basis of direct experiences only. PloS One, 7(10), e46880. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0046880
Nitzschner, Marie, Alicia P. Melis, Juliane Kaminski, and Michael Tomasello. “Dogs (Canis familiaris) evaluate humans on the basis of direct experiences only.PloS One 7, no. 10 (January 2012): e46880. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0046880.
Nitzschner M, Melis AP, Kaminski J, Tomasello M. Dogs (Canis familiaris) evaluate humans on the basis of direct experiences only. PloS one. 2012 Jan;7(10):e46880.
Nitzschner, Marie, et al. “Dogs (Canis familiaris) evaluate humans on the basis of direct experiences only.PloS One, vol. 7, no. 10, Jan. 2012, p. e46880. Epmc, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0046880.
Nitzschner M, Melis AP, Kaminski J, Tomasello M. Dogs (Canis familiaris) evaluate humans on the basis of direct experiences only. PloS one. 2012 Jan;7(10):e46880.

Published In

PloS one

DOI

EISSN

1932-6203

ISSN

1932-6203

Publication Date

January 2012

Volume

7

Issue

10

Start / End Page

e46880

Related Subject Headings

  • Male
  • Humans
  • General Science & Technology
  • Female
  • Dogs
  • Discrimination, Psychological
  • Choice Behavior
  • Behavior, Animal
  • Attention
  • Animals