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Daisy Mallory

Joyce Barnes

ENG 1201

March 23, 2022

Are Dogs Capable of Recognizing Human Emotions?

It has been a long-standing debate whether dogs can recognize human emotions and a

quick Google search will show millions of people asking the same question, “does my dog know

when I’m sad?” There are countless stories out there of people who claim their dogs will comfort

them when they are feeling sad or even ill, but is there any scientific evidence that dogs are

reacting to the person’s emotions? Or are these anecdotes just simply a case of people projecting

their own emotions onto their animals? While dogs may have many ways of behaving that differs

from our own, it is evident that dogs can recognize our joy, illness, sadness, and even anger

based on their reactions to someone expressing said emotions in their presence.

It is a useful adaptation for animals of all kinds to recognize the emotions of their fellow

beings because emotion can indicate intent. “The ability to recognize and respond appropriately

to these cues has biological fitness benefits for both signaler and the receiver.” (1) For example,

if you see an angry dog, one will assume they are going to be bitten. One would then avoid said

dog thus preventing harm to oneself. This is seen on a larger scale in predator versus prey

situations and as simplistically as the biting dog example.

With dogs being the oldest domesticated species, one could argue that the species has had

ample time to start to develop adaptations as a result of this domestication. As stated in my

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Frontiers in Psychology reference, written by several professors from the Department of Animal

Science and Biotechnology of Azabu University in Japan, "emotional contagion is a primitive

form of empathy that does not need higher psychological functions.” (3) This suggests that the

ability to recognize emotion in fellow beings was not a learned trait but is rather something

embedded into all animals' natural instinctual codes.

In 2016, a professor named Natalia Albuquerque from the University of Lincoln in the

United Kingdom performed an experiment to assess whether dogs can extract and properly

utilize emotional information from visual (face) and audial (vocal) stimuli. (2) Seventeen

healthy, socialized, family dogs of different breeds were selected for two 10-trial sessions over

the course of two weeks that would involve showing them a happy human face on the left and a

sad human face on the right, they would then measure how long the dog chose to look at each

image. In 67% of the trials, the dogs showed a preference for the happy human faces versus the

sad ones. Audial experiments were done as well featuring humans saying positive sounding

things and then negative sounding things and as one can imagine, the dogs had a strong reaction

to the negative sounding words. This scientific study supports my hypothesis that dogs can

determine human emotion because they showed the ability to differentiate between happy and

sad.

Recent studies by the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Bari Aldo

Moro in southern Italy took a closer look at the way dogs interpret human emotion based solely

on auditory cues from people. This study focused more on the way dogs interpret different

sounds and if they then in turn will attach an emotion to this noise subconsciously. Thirty dogs

were taken and each one was placed into a room with a speaker on the left, a speaker on the

right, and a food bowl in the middle. The scientists allowed the dog to go to the center of the
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room and eat food while sounds were played on the speakers. Happy noises such as laughing,

and excitement were played on the speakers and sad noises such as crying, and screaming were

played afterwards. They then took note of which way the dog would turn its head when these

noises were played. Since like humans, dogs use their left side of the brain to control the right

side of their body and vice versa, if the dog turned his head to the left it indicated a left side brain

reaction signaling that the dog found the noise to be pleasant. If the dog turned his head to the

right, it indicated that the dog’s right side of the brain was reacting, and this signaled that the dog

found the noise to be unpleasant. (5)

Based on my sources and the information I have gathered; I have determined that dogs

can recognize human emotion by means of auditory and visual cues. This is an important

evolutionary skill as emotion can indicate intent. I would like to do more research into people’s

personal anecdotes so I can include those in my research paper as well. I will also need to find

examples of some of the counter arguments that state dogs are not intelligent enough to be

capable of emotion let alone distinguishing human emotion.

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Bibliography:

1: Albuquerque, N., Guo, K., Wilkinson, A., Savalli, C., Otta, E. and Mills, D.

Albuquerque, Natalia et al. "Dogs Recognize Dog and Human Emotions". Biology Letters, vol

12, no. 1, 2016, p. 20150883. The Royal Society, doi:10.1098/rsbl.2015.0883. Accessed 23 Mar

2022.

2: Correia-Caeiro, C., Guo, K. and Mills, D. S.

Correia-Caeiro, Catia et al. "Perception of Dynamic Facial Expressions of Emotion Between

Dogs and Humans". Animal Cognition, vol 23, no. 3, 2020, pp. 465-476. Springer Science and

Business Media LLC, doi:10.1007/s10071-020-01348-5. Accessed 23 Mar 2022.

3: Katayama, M., Kubo, T., Yamakawa, T., Fujiwara, K., Nomoto, K., Ikeda, K., Mogi, K.,

Nagasawa, M. and Kikusui, T.

Katayama, Maki et al. "Emotional Contagion from Humans to Dogs Is Facilitated by Duration of

Ownership". Frontiers In Psychology, vol 10, 2019. Frontiers Media SA,

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01678. Accessed 23 Mar 2022.

4: Mota-Rojas, D.; Marcet-Rius, M.; Ogi, A.; Hernández-Ávalos, I.; Mariti, C.; Martínez-Burnes,

J.; Mora-Medina, P.; Casas, A.; Domínguez, A.; Reyes, B.; et al. Current Advances in

Assessment of Dog’s Emotions, Facial Expressions, and Their Use for Clinical Recognition of

Pain. Animals 2021, 11, 3334. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/ani11113334

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5: Your Dog Can Hear Your Emotions, Research Shows

"Your Dog Can Hear Your Emotions, Research Shows". American Kennel Club, 2022,

https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/news/dogs-can-hear-your-emotions/#:~:text=Research

%20Shows%20Your%20Dog%20Can%20Hear%20When%20You're%20Happy%20or%20Sad,-

By%20Stephanie%20Gibeault&text=Dogs'%20ability%20to%20communicate%20with,even

%20follow%20our%20pointing%20gestures. Accessed 23 Mar 2022.