Perceived reward attainability may underlie dogs' responses in inequity paradigms.

ABSTRACT: Dogs have repeatedly been shown to give their paw to an experimenter more times for no reward when a rewarded conspecific partner is absent than when a rewarded conspecific is present, thereby showing inequity aversion. However, rather than being inequity averse, dogs might give their paw more when a partner is absent due to the experimenter's procedure in which they move food in front of the subject to mimic feeding a partner. This action could increase subjects' perception of reward attainability. We tested this hypothesis by introducing an improved type of control condition in which subjects were unrewarded for giving the paw in the presence of a rewarded box, a condition that more closely resembles the inequity condition. Inequity averse subjects' performance did not differ based on wh

SUBMITTER: McGetrick J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10372141 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature