A new study published in the journal PLOS One proves that adult dogs remember who is generous versus selfish, and they prefer generous people.
The most interesting part of the study actually showed that puppies have no preference, indicating that dogs must learn over time how to determine these things, that it’s not an innate skill. The study concluded that “adult subjects (both family and shelter dogs) developed a preference for G [generous] over S [selfish].”
The study used a mix of family dogs, shelter dogs, and puppies to best distinguish whether the length of experience or the type of experience dogs had with people affected how much the dogs remembered generosity. There were 2 rounds of training sessions followed by a choice session for each dog.
In the first training session, one person would point to a bowl filled with roasted chicken and allowed the dog to eat the chicken. This was the representation of “generosity.” The second person pointed to a bowl filled with chicken, but they ate it themselves before the dog could reach it. This represented “selfishness.” Afterwards, each person held up a bowl and allowed the dog to choose which person to approach. Regardless of whether they were family dogs or shelter dogs, adult dogs preferred the generous person.
In the second training session, the adult dogs were more hesitant about approaching the second person as they pointed at the food dish, indicating that they remembered the person as being selfish.
While the biggest difference in the results was between puppies and adults, there were also differences between family dogs and shelter dogs. Shelter dogs, for example, weren’t as good at picking up human cues like pointing.
These results seem to indicate that the more experience a dog has with people, the better they are at being able to associate certain behaviors with specific people.
