Can Dogs Tell That You're Lying? The Answer May Surprise You!

Studies have shown that dogs can sense human emotions, differentiate between angry and happy faces, and pick up on human cues and gestures, such as eye contact or pointing fingers.

Now, a study published in Animal Cognition suggests that dogs are quick to distinguish lies, distrust people who lie to them, and hold onto that mistrust for a long time.

Research

A team led by Akiko Takaoka at Kyoto University in Japan conducted two experiments using two opaque containers – one concealed food and the other was empty.

Experiment 1 involved three phases of pointing. In the first phase, the researcher accurately pointed to the container with hidden food. The second phase was designed to show that the person was no longer trustworthy, pointing to the empty container instead. The third phase was a repeat of the first phase.

Experiment 2 involved a new experimenter who replicated the first phase.

Findings

In the first phase of Experiment 1, the dogs showed trust by approaching the container that the researcher pointed to. However, by the third phase, only 8% of the dogs continued to follow the pointing cues, while the majority deemed the person unreliable.

In Experiment 2, the dogs followed the new experimenter with renewed curiosity and trust, demonstrating that dogs can discern between trustworthy and untrustworthy people.

Analysis

These findings indicate that dogs possess high level skills in understanding human cues and gestures, and modify their behavior based on the inferences they make about the trustworthiness of a person.

Feature Image Source: Pixabay