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Dogs show no preference for nice people, according to a study. (archive picture)
Keystone
Dogs treat dismissive and benevolent people equally. This is what Austrian behavioral researchers report. In an experiment, 40 four-legged friends showed no preference for two-legged friends who had previously kindly offered them a sausage.
They did not prefer them to humans who kept it to themselves with a gruff demeanor. The study was published in the journal "Animal Cognition".
For the experiment, researchers from the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, interacted with two types of people: With "nice" people who gave them or a conspecific a piece of sausage in front of their eyes and said in a friendly manner, "You can have it." And with "mean" people who shouted at them: "You can't have it!", folded their arms, turned away with the sausage and walked off.
Afterwards, the dogs showed equally friendly behavior towards the "nice" and "mean" people. "The study therefore does not support the assumption that domestic dogs are capable of making judgments about humans," the researchers wrote in the study.
01.07.2025, 08:19
