The ability to recognize dog emotions depends on the cultural milieu in which we grow up.

ABSTRACT: Inter-specific emotion recognition is especially adaptive when species spend a long time in close association, like dogs and humans. Here, we comprehensively studied the human ability to recognize facial expressions associated with dog emotions (hereafter, emotions). Participants were presented with pictures of dogs, humans and chimpanzees, showing angry, fearful, happy, neutral and sad emotions, and had to assess which emotion was shown, and the context in which the picture had been taken. Participants were recruited among children and adults with different levels of general experience with dogs, resulting from different personal (i.e. dog ownership) and cultural experiences (i.e. growing up or being exposed to a cultural milieu in which dogs are highly valued and integrated in human live

SUBMITTER: Amici F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6848084 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature