A Shoulder to Cry On: Heart Rate Variability and Empathetic Behavioral Responses to Crying and Laughing in Dogs.
Dogs have a reputation for empathy toward their owners, which is also supported by some research (e.g., Carballo et al., 2020; Sanford, Burt, & Meyers-Manor, 2018). Many dog owners anecdotally report that dogs comfort them by making visual and/or physical contact when they cry or help them when they...
| Published in: | Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology / Revue Canadienne de Psychologie Expérimentale Vol. 74; no. 3; pp. 235 - 244 |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Canadian Psychological Association
Sep2020
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=146518885&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 146518885 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 11961961 CJX jtl: Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology / Revue Canadienne de Psychologie Expérimentale issn: 11961961 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Sep2020 vid: 74 iid: 3 pid: 98 pub: Canadian Psychological Association artinfo: ui: 146518885 10.1037/cep0000225 ppf: 235 ppct: 9 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 366KB tig: atl: A Shoulder to Cry On: Heart Rate Variability and Empathetic Behavioral Responses to Crying and Laughing in Dogs. aug: au: Meyers-Manor, Julia E. Botten, Marijo L. affil: Macalester College su: Crying Psychological distress Emotions Empathy Human-animal relationships Laughter Pets Self-control Animal behavior Animal experimentation Dogs Heart beat sug: subj: Crying Psychological distress Emotions Empathy Human-animal relationships Laughter Pets Self-control Live animal merchant wholesalers All Other Animal Production Pet and Pet Supplies Stores All other miscellaneous animal production Animal behavior Animal experimentation Dogs Heart beat keyword: canine emotional regulation empathy HRV canin empathie régulation émotionnelle variabilité du rythme cardiaque canine emotional regulation empathy HRV canin empathie régulation émotionnelle variabilité du rythme cardiaque ab: Dogs have a reputation for empathy toward their owners, which is also supported by some research (e.g., Carballo et al., 2020; Sanford, Burt, & Meyers-Manor, 2018). Many dog owners anecdotally report that dogs comfort them by making visual and/or physical contact when they cry or help them when they are sick. These behaviours provide a good way to assess the capacity for empathy and its physiological correlates in dogs. This study is a replication and extension of Custance and Mayer (2012). We examined whether using laughing as an alternative stimulus to humming produced similar responses to crying. Dogs were tested in their homes while a stranger and owner pretended to cry, laugh, and while the owner and stranger were talking. During each counterbalanced condition, the dog was observed for person-oriented behaviours and simultaneously had their heart rate variability measured. Like Custance and Mayer, dogs showed more behaviours directed toward the person crying, whether the owner or the stranger, than during baseline or laughing conditions. We did not find an effect of laughing on person-oriented behaviours, suggesting that dogs respond to the crying uniquely and not as a novel stimulus. In the condition when the stranger was crying, dogs that showed higher stress responses, as indicated by lower heart rate variability, were most likely to show person-oriented behaviours toward the stranger. This suggests that dogs that experience more distress, through emotional contagion, are more likely to show person-oriented behaviours toward the distressed stranger, indicating a possible mechanism for empathy-like behaviours. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|