Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America ; Centre for the Study of Cultural Evolution, University of Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden.
PLoS One. 2013 Sep 11;8(9):e74770. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0074770. eCollection 2013.
We investigate the relationship between characteristics of dog breeds and their popularity between years 1926 and 2005. We consider breed health, longevity, and behavioral qualities such as aggressiveness, trainability, and fearfulness. We show that a breed's overall popularity, fluctuations in popularity, and rates of increase and decrease around popularity peaks show typically no correlation with these breed characteristics. One exception is the finding that more popular breeds tend to suffer from more inherited disorders. Our results support the hypothesis that dog breed popularity has been primarily determined by fashion rather than function.
我们研究了 1926 年至 2005 年间狗的品种特征与其受欢迎程度之间的关系。我们考虑了品种的健康状况、寿命以及攻击性、可训练性和恐惧等行为特征。我们发现，一个品种的整体受欢迎程度、受欢迎程度的波动以及在受欢迎程度峰值附近的增长率和下降率通常与这些品种特征没有相关性。一个例外是发现更受欢迎的品种往往更容易患上遗传性疾病。我们的研究结果支持了这样一种假设，即狗的品种受欢迎程度主要是由时尚而不是功能决定的。
