Study shows dogs (and other animals) have a sense of fairness

[Connonym]

Oddly this finding occurs while a lot of people seem to have lost their sense of fairness
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/dogenvy.html

<snip>Like humans and chimpanzees, dogs seem to expect fairness in their dealings with humans. When two dogs sitting next to each other complete the same action — shaking paws in this case — but don't receive the same reward, the jilted dog stops playing along.

"I think it's an important finding because it goes beyond primates," said evolutionary biologist Marc Bekoff, author of a forthcoming book on animal morality, Wild Justice, who was not involved with the study. "It calls attention to the fact that animals are a heck of a lot smarter and more emotional than we give them credit for.

The new study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is part of a growing body of research showing that many social animals, including dogs, wolves and marmosets, have emotions previously considered unique to humans. While biologists have long thought that mammals experience primary emotions like fear, more recent studies have found strong evidence that a range of animals also feel more nuanced, secondary emotions like a sense of fairness.

[He loved Big Brother]

1. Neat.

I am not surprised. I watched a show about wolves and their pack mentality on NG and it was amazing. In the pack, there's an "omega" wolf that it isn't allowed to eat until the other wolves have finished. The head of the pack (alpha dog?) chooses which wolf it is, and keeps them "in their place" their whole lives, using other wolves to dole out punishment. It reminded me of the military. There's a hierarchy among packs and it is definitely enforced. Sometimes the omega wolf would try to step up to the food before it was allowed, and after the other wolves chased it away, it would cry. To me, that was a secondary type of emotion.

It was actually kind of sad, but that's nature. I just wish more people would recognize that just because animals weren't born with the means to speak human languages doesn't mean they are so far removed from us in their range of emotions.

[Duppers]

2. but don't ya know

they're just waiting for something to die or a buddy to get hit on the highway so that they can eat it.

I'd better stay healthy or my dog might get 'ideas.'

MAJORLY SICK :sarcasm: (referencing a recent thread)


Seriously though, I know they understand fairness.

[Connonym]

3. is that a golden in your avatar?

I have a golden and a half-golden. They are my favorite kind of dogs.

[Duppers]

5. looks as if it's half golden, half yellow lab

Labs are my favs.

:hi:

[Jamastiene]

4. Of course, they do.

I still cannot get it out of my head that one of the teachers at the college said animals have no emotions whatsoever and any emotions we see them display are us projecting on the animals what we wish they would feel for us. I am still miffed at her for that bullshit. :eyes:

[Duppers]

6. I've heard that bullshit too

A catholic psych professor I had yrs ago stated that once in class. (He did experiments on monkeys in his lab and I suspected he was probably a closet sadist too. He seemed to have no compassion for anything. Sonofabitch made passes at his female students, including me.)

Some less intelligent, less sensitive DUers have also stated the same.
:grr:

[Eurobabe]

7. Animals should rule the world

not humans. I've said that repeatedly.

Anyone who thinks that "animals have no feelings" is fucked up. When I "love talk" with my cat, he squints and averts his eyes, like he is embarrassed that I am fawning over him. But you can see and feel the pleasure in his being. It's really hysterical, and my husband laughs about it too.

[stuntcat]

8. cutie!!

I want to hold his little feet, I have a foot fetish when it comes to cats and dogs.

I know my cats feel LOVE, Tonka's full of it, it's not just because I clean his kitty litter either, he has true LOVE.

[Eurobabe]

9. Oh Tonka is BEAUTIFUL

what a gorgeous cat. He looks loved too. :hug: :hi:

[KittyWampus]

10. the cat is doing "The Blink". All cats do that. They like it if you blink back.