Wolves And Dogs Stop Cooperating If They Know They've Been Cheated

If a couple of days ago we told you how the ravens knew if a human was deceiving them, a study published in Current Biology states that dogs and wolves can know when something is unfair and stop cooperating when they are being deceived. This supports the idea that these traits evolve within species that live in a group.

There was a widespread belief that dogs know if they were being used unfairly, prompting a group of researchers from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna to check it, and also included wolves.

The researchers tested a pair of dogs and wolves to see how they reacted to being cheated. In the first series of experiments, a dog was trained to play a bell with its paw and had a reward; Another dog was taught the same thing. Then he put them both in a cage and put one in front of the other: one was given a reward by ringing the bell, while the other was not. When he saw it, the dog that did not receive anything stopped ringing the bell. With wolves the same thing happened.

In the second experiment, they tried the same thing again, but with a lower quality food. Once again, they saw that the dogs and the wolves stopped collaborating when they saw that the fellow in front gave him something better.

"This demonstrated the fact that dogs stop cooperating because they have not received a reward that they believe is fair," says Friederike Range, a co-author of the study, published in Current Biology.

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Reference:
IFL Science