Dogs Mentally Represent Jealousy-Inducing Social Interactions. (May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bastos, Amalia P. M.; Neilands, Patrick D.; Hassall, Rebecca S.; Lim, Byung C.; Taylor, Alex H.
• Is Part Of: Psychological science. Volume 32:Number 5(2021)
• Page Start: 646
• Page End: 654
• Publication Date: 2021-05
• Subjects: dogs -- secondary emotion -- jealous behavior -- jealousy -- mental representation -- open data; Psychology -- Periodicals; 150.5
• DOI: 10.1177/0956797620979149
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0956-7976

Abstract

Jealousy may have evolved to protect valuable social bonds from interlopers, but some researchers have suggested that it is linked to self-awareness and theory of mind, leading to claims that it is unique to humans. We presented dogs ( N = 18; 11 females; age: M = 4.6 years, SD = 1.9) with situations in which they could observe an out-of-sight social interaction between their owner and a fake dog or between their owner and a fleece cylinder. We found evidence for three signatures of jealous behavior in dogs: (a) Jealousy emerged only when the dog's owner interacted with a perceived social rival, (b) it occurred as a consequence of that interaction and not because of the mere presence of a conspecific, and (c) it emerged even for an out-of-sight interaction between the dog's owner and a social rival. These results support claims that dogs display jealous behavior, and they provide the first evidence that dogs can mentally represent jealousy-inducing social interactions.