Even DOGS get jealous! The study shows that kids exhibit envious behaviors when they only imagine that their owner is interacting with another dog.
- Scientists studied 18 dogs and their owners to see how jealous the dog becomes
- They saw their man close to a fake dog and then were split by a screen
- Even when the dog could not see its owner, they showed signs of jealousy
- This shows that dogs have the ability to imagine their owner petting another dog and becoming envious.
Dogs are devoted companions who offer unwavering loyalty to their people, but new research has exposed the full extent of their inner monster with green eyes.
The anecdotal evidence of the owners is now supported by scientists who have discovered that pet poachers become jealous when their man caresses another dog.
But research has found that dogs can become jealous just by imagining that the owner looks like another dog, even when they can’t see the interaction.
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The anecdotal evidence of the owners is now supported by scientists who have discovered that pet poachers become jealous when their man caresses another dog (stock)
“Research has strongly supported what many dog owners believe – dogs behave jealously when their human companion interacts with a potential rival,” said study lead author Amalia Bastos of the University of Auckland.
“We wanted to study this behavior in more detail to determine if dogs, like humans, could be mentally jealous.”
Scientists are interested in studying jealousy in animals because it is related to a degree of self-awareness, which is a complex cognitive trait, unseen in all species.
As part of a study, 18 dogs and their owners were recruited and taken to a room. There was either a woolen cylinder or an extremely realistic artificial dog in that room.
Research has found that dogs can become jealous just by imagining that the owner is fighting with another dog, even when they cannot see the interaction (stock).
The pets, still in the lead, saw their owners stroking the fake dog and then a screen was placed between the animal and the person so that the dog could not see their rival or owner.
The researchers observed the canine behavior at this time and saw that the pets fired heavily on the lead and expressed revealing signs of jealousy, such as growling and agitated opinion.
This, the researchers say, means that although dogs could not see their love and human attention on a rival, they had the mental capacity to imagine it and therefore became jealous.
For the fleece-lined cylinder, the dogs were much less jealous, indicating their jealousy only for the things they considered a threat.
“These results support claims that dogs behave jealously,” Bastos said.
“It also provides the first evidence that dogs can mentally represent social interactions that induce jealousy.
“Previous studies have confused jealous behavior with play, interest or aggression, as they have never tested the dog’s reactions to the owner and social rival being present in the same room, but without interacting.”
“There is still a lot of work to be done to establish the degree of similarity between the minds of humans and other animals, especially in terms of understanding the nature of the emotional experiences of nonhuman animals,” she adds.
“It’s too early to tell if dogs experience jealousy like we do, but now it’s clear they react to situations that cause jealousy, even if they occur out of sight.”
The complete findings are published in the journal Psychological Science.