![]() ![]() Ĭanids may serve as a valuable taxon for such investigations given that a number of canid species are highly social and may cooperate in territory defense, group hunting, and allomaternal care. Thus, a broader phylogenetic framework is needed to clarify the evolutionary origins of prosocial behavior. However, some of the most commonly proposed evolutionary drivers are relatively uncommon in primates compared to other taxa. Although prosociality has been experimentally demonstrated in corvids, parrots, canids, rodents, and social insects (for review, see ), research on prosociality in non-human animals has primarily focused on primates. Prosocial behaviors are generally regarded as widespread among species. However, the extent to which empathy and sympathy shape prosociality in non-human animals remains unclear. Although most authors describe prosocial behaviors in terms of costs and benefits (e.g., ), some definitions require that the prosocial actor demonstrate concern for the receiver and thus, an understanding of the receiver’s emotional state. Prosocial behaviors occur when individuals voluntarily act to benefit one or more individuals other than themselves. Thus, prosocial behavior tests for dogs should control for physical ability and previous experience. Success in the food task and previous (in-home) experience opening objects were both strong predictors of releasing the owner. This evidence of emotional contagion supports the hypothesis that rescuing the distressed owner was an empathetically-motivated prosocial behavior. Dogs displayed more stress behaviors in the distress test than in the reading test, and stress scores decreased with test number in the reading test but not in the distress test. Thus, rescuing the owner could not be attributed solely to social facilitation, stimulus enhancement, or social contact-seeking behavior. In addition, opening latencies decreased with test number in the distress test but not the reading test. After accounting for opening ability, dogs released the owner more often when the owner called for help than when the owner read aloud calmly. ![]() Dogs were as likely to release their distressed owner as to retrieve treats from inside the box, indicating that rescuing an owner may be a highly rewarding action for dogs. To examine the causal mechanisms that shaped this behavior, the readiness of each dog to open the box was tested in three conditions: 1) the owner sat in the box and called for help (distress test), 2) an experimenter placed high-value food rewards in the box (food test), and 3) the owner sat in the box and calmly read aloud (reading test). To assess the propensity of pet dogs to actively rescue distressed humans without explicit training, this study tested whether sixty pet dogs would release their seemingly trapped owners from a large box. However, the extent to which these helpful behaviors are prosocially motivated remains unclear. Domestic dogs have assisted humans for millennia. ![]()
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