Emotional Contagion From Humans to Dogs Is Facilitated by Duration of Ownership.

ABSTRACT: Emotional contagion is a primitive form of empathy that does not need higher psychological functions. Recent studies reported that emotional contagion exists not only between humans but also among various animal species. The dog (Canis familiaris) is a unique animal and the oldest domesticated species. Dogs have coexisted with humans for more than 30,000 years and are woven into human society as partners bonding with humans. Dogs have acquired human-like communication skills and, likely as a result of the domestication process, the ability to read human emotions; therefore, it is feasible that there may be emotional contagion between human and dogs. However, the higher time-resolution of measurement of emotional contagion between them is yet to be conducted. We assessed the emotiona

SUBMITTER: Katayama M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6658615 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature