Studies show dogs have sense of fairness

Dec 08, 2008 By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID , AP Science Writer
This undated handout photo provided by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows the subject has not received food for giving the paw in the last trials and observing that the partner did receive food, the subject is refusing to give the paw and avoids looking at the experimenter. No fair! What parent hasn't heard that from a child who thinks another youngster got more of something. Well, it turns out dogs can react the same way. Ask them to do a trick and they'll give it a try. For a reward, sausage say, they'll happily keep at it. But if one dog gets no reward, and then sees another get sausage for doing the same trick, just try to get the first one to do it again. (AP Photo/Friederike Range, PNAS)

(AP) -- No fair! What parent hasn't heard that from a child who thinks another youngster got more of something. Well, it turns out dogs can react the same way.



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User comments : 5

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JJC
1 / 5 (1) Dec 08, 2008
This is just extinction of the behavior due to not rewarding it.

When one dog got bread and the other got sausage, both continued to do the behavior. When one got a reward and the other didn't, the one who didn't stopped doing the behavior.

What happens when there is just 1 dog and you stop rewarding the behavior? It will stop of course, and no one would call it envy.
MGraser
4 / 5 (2) Dec 08, 2008
Actually, dogs tend to do tricks as long as they feel they'll get a treat at some point. Our dog will do a single trick or multiple tricks for one reward. If we didn't give one sometimes, they'd still try, hoping for the reward. In this case, the dogs stopped immediately, which I think is different.
Mauricio
not rated yet Dec 08, 2008
This is just extinction of the behavior due to not rewarding it.


Extinction produces an initial response burst: The rate of behavior increases higher to the level on baseline.
tigger
not rated yet Dec 09, 2008
Why is it so surprising that "animals" exhibit cognitive behaviour on the same level (though less intensely) as "humans"?

This is a great article, yet more evidence for the social and cognitive behaviour of "animals".
TJ_alberta
not rated yet Dec 09, 2008
dogs also get insulted, jealous and exhibit "revenge" behavior.

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