Dogs can distinguish happy and sad faces: Study
QMI Agency
First posted: Friday, February 13, 2015 12:14 PM EST | Updated: Friday, February 13, 2015 12:22 PM EST
Dogs can tell whether humans are happy or angry, a new study suggests.
Scientists from the aptly named clever dog lab at the Messerli Research Institute in Vienna, Austria, trained dogs to associate the pictures of happy or angry faces with a reward.
In another test, researchers showed the dogs pictures from a different batch of men's and women's faces, suggesting the animals could tell the difference between emotions.
Researchers showed 20 dogs images of either the upper half or the lower half of the faces of happy or angry people.
Half the dogs were given a treat when they touched an angry face, while the other group were rewarded for touching happy faces.
The dogs responded to the happy faces better than the sad ones, the study says.
"It seems that dogs dislike approaching angry faces," study director Ludwig Huber told Science Daily.
More than half of the dogs learned the task very well.
"We believe that dogs draw on their memory during this exercise. They recognize a facial expression which they have already stored," co-author Corsin Muller said, Science Daily reported.
"We suspect that dogs that have no experience with people would perform worse or could not solve the task at all."
The study was published in the journal Current Biology.
Dogs can distinguish happy and sad faces: Study | World | News | Toronto Sun
QMI Agency
First posted: Friday, February 13, 2015 12:14 PM EST | Updated: Friday, February 13, 2015 12:22 PM EST
Dogs can tell whether humans are happy or angry, a new study suggests.
Scientists from the aptly named clever dog lab at the Messerli Research Institute in Vienna, Austria, trained dogs to associate the pictures of happy or angry faces with a reward.
In another test, researchers showed the dogs pictures from a different batch of men's and women's faces, suggesting the animals could tell the difference between emotions.
Researchers showed 20 dogs images of either the upper half or the lower half of the faces of happy or angry people.
Half the dogs were given a treat when they touched an angry face, while the other group were rewarded for touching happy faces.
The dogs responded to the happy faces better than the sad ones, the study says.
"It seems that dogs dislike approaching angry faces," study director Ludwig Huber told Science Daily.
More than half of the dogs learned the task very well.
"We believe that dogs draw on their memory during this exercise. They recognize a facial expression which they have already stored," co-author Corsin Muller said, Science Daily reported.
"We suspect that dogs that have no experience with people would perform worse or could not solve the task at all."
The study was published in the journal Current Biology.
Dogs can distinguish happy and sad faces: Study | World | News | Toronto Sun
