Jim Hoi-Lam, Belfiore Kadisha, Martinelli Eva B, Martínez Mayte, Range Friederike, Marshall-Pescini Sarah
Domestication Lab, Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, Department of Interdisciplinary Life Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Institute for the Future of Human Society, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
Anim Cogn. 2025 Jun 28;28(1):51. doi: 10.1007/s10071-025-01967-w.
Animals can form reputations of individuals through direct interactions or by observing interactions with a third party, known as eavesdropping. Given their cooperative relationship with humans, considerable interest has focused on whether dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) can socially evaluate humans, though findings remain mixed. To assess whether this ability develops during ontogeny, we investigated whether dogs of different ages (young, adult, and senior) can form reputations of humans after observing them interact with a conspecific or through direct interactions in a food-giving situation. Forty pet dogs participated in the experiment. In the eavesdropping condition, dogs observed two humans interact with a dog demonstrator-one was generous and fed the dog, while the other was selfish and withheld food. In the direct experience condition, dogs interacted with the two partners directly. We analysed dogs' first choice and time spent exhibiting affiliative behaviours towards each partner. Results showed that dogs across all age groups did not significantly prefer the generous partner compared to the selfish partner, nor did their behaviour exceed chance levels following indirect or direct experience. These findings do not provide support for dogs showing reputation formation and highlight the methodological complexities of studying this phenomenon.
动物可以通过直接互动或观察与第三方的互动（即偷听）来形成对个体的声誉认知。鉴于狗与人类的合作关系，人们对狗（家犬）是否能够对人类进行社会评价产生了浓厚兴趣，尽管研究结果仍存在分歧。为了评估这种能力在个体发育过程中是否会发展，我们调查了不同年龄（幼年、成年和老年）的狗在观察人类与同种个体互动后，或者在给予食物的情境中通过直接互动，是否能够形成对人类的声誉认知。40只宠物狗参与了该实验。在偷听条件下，狗观察两个人与一只示范狗互动——其中一个慷慨地喂狗，而另一个自私地不给食物。在直接体验条件下，狗直接与这两个伙伴互动。我们分析了狗对每个伙伴的首次选择以及表现出亲和行为所花费的时间。结果表明，与自私的伙伴相比，所有年龄组的狗都没有显著更倾向于慷慨的伙伴，而且在间接或直接体验后，它们的行为也未超过随机水平。这些发现不支持狗表现出声誉形成的观点，并凸显了研究这一现象的方法复杂性。
