Study fails to show that dogs or wolves can form reputations of humans

Among animals that live in groups, forming reputations of individuals can play an important role in cooperation. Because dogs can cooperate with humans, some researchers have hypothesized that dogs can form reputations of individual humans by observing humans' interactions with a third party. However, research on the topic has produced mixed findings. Additionally, if dogs indeed have this ability, it is unclear whether it evolved during domestication or was already present in their wolf ancestors.

To help clarify, Jim and colleagues conducted a study with nine wolves and six dogs at the Wolf Science Center in Austria. Each test animal observed interactions between two humans and a dog, in which the "generous" human fed the dog and the "selfish" human withheld food. Afterwards, the test animal demonstrated whether they had formed reputations of the humans by choosing which of the two humans to approach. A second phase tested whether each animal formed reputations after interacting directly with humans who either fed them or withheld food.

Statistical analysis of the results suggested that neither the dogs nor the wolves formed reputations of the humans after either indirect observation or direct interaction. Thus, the findings do not support the idea that dogs and wolves are able to form reputations.

However, the wolves did pay more attention to the generous human when observing interactions with a dog. Furthermore, two wolves and three dogs did show preference for the generous human after the combined experience of both indirect observation and direct interaction.

The researchers call for further research on the topic, perhaps involving a larger number of dogs and wolves, and with thoughtful consideration of context. For instance, it may be that some animals are more likely to form reputations in stressful or dangerous situations, although those are not possible to test experimentally for ethical reasons.

The authors add: "Overall, neither dogs nor wolves distinguished between a generous or selfish human after indirect or direct experience. However, wolves showed more attention toward the generous person during the observation phase, and some dogs and wolves did prefer the generous person when looking at indirect and direct experiences combined."