Dogs are the only animals that can read emotion in faces much like humans, cementing their position as man's best friend, claim scientists.
Research findings suggest that, like an understanding best friend, they can see at a glance if we are happy, sad, pleased or angry.
- Dogs have a sense of right and wrong
- Dogs 'may be able to read their owner's minds'
- Dogs display aspects of human intelligence
When humans look at a new face their eyes tend to wander left, falling on the right hand side of the person's face first.
This "left gaze bias" only occurs when we encounter faces and does not apply any other time, such as when inspecting animals or inanimate objects.A possible reason for the tendency is that the right side of the human face is better at expressing emotional state.
Researchers at the University of Lincoln have now shown that pet dogs also exhibit "left gaze bias", but only when looking at human faces. No other animal has been known to display this behaviour before.
A team led by Dr Kun Guo showed 17 dogs images of human, dog and monkey faces as well as inanimate objects.
Film of the dogs' eye and head movement revealed a strong left gaze bias when the animals were presented with human faces. But this did not occur when they were shown other images, including those of dogs.
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2 comments:
I have often sensed the dogs are reading my mind. What I figured is I am moving in a habitual way they have associated with what I am about to do. Habitual movements I am not even aware of ??? or maybe they are reading my mind, my thought waves.
In some ways I think dogs' level of empathy with humans is higher than amongst ourselves. The way a dog wants nothing more than to make you happy when you're sad or to give some distance when you're mad is much stronger a reaction than humans usually have.