http://www.care2.com/greenliving/scientists-find-dogs-dont-feel-guilt-ha.html
Scientists Find Dogs Don’t Feel Guilt? Ha!
By Melissa Breyer, Senior Editor, Care2
A recent study claims to prove that dogs don’t feel guilt. I can only surmise that these researchers have never had a dog!
During the study, owners were asked to leave the room after ordering their dogs not to eat a tasty treat. While the owner was away, researchers gave some of the dogs the forbidden treat before asking the owners back into the room. In some trials, the owners were told that their dog had eaten the forbidden treat; in others, they were told their dog had behaved properly and left the treat alone. What the owners were told, however, often did not correlate with reality.
Whether the dogs’ demeanor included elements of the “guilty look” had little to do with whether the dogs had actually eaten the treat or not. Dogs looked most “guilty” if they were admonished by their owners for eating the treat. In fact, dogs that had been obedient and had not eaten the treat, but were scolded by their (misinformed) owners, looked more “guilty” than those who had, in fact, eaten the treat.
Thus, the study concludes, the dog’s guilty look is a response to the owner’s behavior, and not necessarily indicative of any appreciation of its own misdeeds. Well, okay. But how can they say that the dogs don’t feel guilt??? So maybe a dog doesn’t think it’s bad to eat a tempting piece of food (and why oh why should a dog think it’s bad to eat something that it needs to survive, anyway?)–but the dogs clearly showed guilty looks–slinking away, ducking the head and dropping the tail–when they were reprimanded.
Our canine companions are so often so in tune with us, that they respond to our clues. We might not expect them to feel bad about eating a piece of steak on the counter, that’s their natural instinct, but once we’ve let them know that we are not happy with it, they clearly show signs of guilt. In my book, dogs feel guilt–end of story. What about your dogs? Do you agree with the study that dogs don’t feel guilt?
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155 comments
add your comment »I also think that dogs do feel guilt.
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I could always tell when my rescue terrier had done somethng wrong...she wouldn't be at the door to greet me...I would have to search the house to find out what she did (usually had an accident and really it was my fault, I was late...) and then I would call her out from under the bed and tell her what a good girl she was and how happy I was to see her. No point in reprimanding for my error and she reprimanded herself anyway by hiding under the bed and waiting for me to come home...poor thing...
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I agree with Melissa. My dog doesn’t feel guilt. But I never reprimand it...
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Hum... I disagree.. At least my 2 dogs feel guilt.
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My dogs certainly feel guilt,before i find out what they've done, i know, by the slinky behaviour ---
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one morning our yellow lab killed a cat in our yard, she seemed so happy to have "protected" the family from this intruder. i was furious at her actions and she noticed it too. her wagging tail dropped between her legs and her head sunk. i hope this guilt will prevent her from killing again...
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Of course dogs feel guilt. This study has a huge design flaw. The look the dogs gave wasn't guilt but hurt and remorse for upsetting their humans when the humans reprimanded them! One of my dogs clearly exhibited guilt by the fact he came to me in a different room of the house and gave me the guilty look while crawling on his belly toward me. I asked him "Oscar, what did you do?" He went into the living room and I followed him to discover he had knocked my purse off the table and gotten out the sugarless gum I had stored there. It was chewed all over the floor! I was unaware he had done anything until he brought it to my attention. That's guilt!
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Yup. Leave it up to scientists to figure out a way to prove something with irrevelent data. They probably do feel guilt but we can't pick it up as we would with another human.
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really super thought Deborah - why do scientists spend time and money on such futile "research"??
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Very good point Deborah. With everything going on right now, is it really important to prove that dogs do or do not feel guilt? How much money was wasted on this experiment? And since this experiment seems to have the overhead of a box of goodies, where is the rest of the money going?
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