It’s not just other people so many of us have a hard time reading. Apparently, even after more than 30,000 years, we still struggle to read our closest friends. A new study explores the challenges humans face when trying to interpret dogs’ emotional expressions. The research reveals the hurdles we face in reading their facial and bodily cues.
As we increasingly rely on our canine companions in a growing number of settings, whether it’s at home with our kids, in a health care environment as a support animal, or in law enforcement, it’s never been more critical that we understand what they’re thinking and feeling. Misreading those emotions can have real consequences that can drive behavioral issues, stress, and – in extreme cases – harm.
The study, which included nearly 450 participants, compared humans’ ability to recognize a range of primary and secondary emotions in dogs based on video clips. Researchers wanted to see if the participants could identify a range of emotions – such as anger, fear, happiness, and frustration – in facial expressions (showing only the animal’s face) and bodily expressions.
Facial vs. Bodily Expression
The results revealed a notable difference in how humans interpret facial and bodily expressions. On average, participants appeared to be better at reading a dog’s emotions when they could see its entire body, as opposed to just its face. But, the precision varied depending on the emotion involved.
For example, the researchers found that the study participants could read emotions like anger and surprise more easily through facial expressions alone. But for emotions like happiness, sadness, and pain, it became easier to read through whole-body cues.
The researchers uncovered some particularly revealing nuggets from the study, such as:
- Participants frequently misread fear when they saw it in facial cues, often confusing it with happiness.
- But when dogs showed fear in their body language, the study participants usually mistook it for sadness.
- Other emotions – such as positive anticipation and separation-distress – also proved tough to identify accurately.
The study’s findings also seem to suggest that different emotion types might rely on separate channels for accurate recognition. For example, participants could detect emotions tied to approach-avoidance behaviors – like anger or surprise – more readily through facial expressions. On the other end of the spectrum, more subtle psychological states – like happiness or sadness – might be more apparent after seeing the whole body.
Familiarity Breeds Contempt?
The study also looked at how prior experience with dogs better equips humans to communicate with dogs. Participants with longer experiences living with dogs, appeared to be better at discerning emotions like appeasement and fear. Consequently, familiarity might improve one’s ability to read their emotional states.
That being said, participants could recognize some emotions, especially those linked to common adaptive responses like anger and happiness, whether they had experience with dogs or not.
But – perhaps most importantly – the research results also exposed disparities between what dog owners think they can recognize and what they can. In self-reports, dog owners were confident they could peg a dog’s emotions accurately. But the study results suggested otherwise:
- 96 percent of dog owners said they could recognize happiness with no problem. But the study revealed they were accurate less than two out of three tries – at 63 percent.
- Nearly 90 percent of dog owners thought they could detect fear. But only 16 percent could do so correctly.
Implications for Human-Dog Interaction
The study’s findings have important implications for both animal welfare and human safety, the researchers argued. Misinterpreting a dog’s emotional state can be dangerous.
For example, mistaking a fearful dog for a happy one could cause humans to engage with the animal inappropriately, leading to an injury. Conversely, failing to recognize signs of distress could lead to neglect.
The research shows how critical it is to improve education on dog communication, or more specifically, recognizing the animals emotions quickly and accurately. A better graps of the intricacies of dog expressions remains crucial for encouraging safe, positive interactions – for humans and the dogs.
Further Reading
Can Dogs Predict PTSD Flashbacks?
