Reading dogs’ emotions

Different cultures have very different attitudes towards dogs. Some perceive dogs as family pets, while others perceive them as unclean animals that should only live outside. Amici and colleagues wanted to explore whether these cultural differences alter how people interpret dogs’ emotions.

The authors found that while the ability to read some basic dog emotions (such as happiness and anger) is developed in early childhood regardless of culture, the extent to which adults develop more sophisticated understandings of dog emotions is culturedependent. For instance, regardless of whether or not they owned a dog, adult participants who grew up in cultures that perceive dogs positively tended to be better at recognising dog emotions than participants who grew up in cultures where dogs are less revered.