According to Dr. Gordon Gallup, a leading researcher at the University of Albany, “contagious yawning is triggered by empathic mechanisms which function to maintain group vigilance.” (news.bbc.co.uk) Studies conducted by a team led by Dr. Atsushi Senju from Birkbeck College, University of London showed that dogs may have an empathetic response to a human yawn. Who knew your trusty pet cared so much?
The Experiment
Dr. Senju and his team developed an experiment, which tested 29 canines in reading a human yawn signal (news.bbc.co.uk). Two conditions were used in the experiment to ensure accuracy of results.
1. Under the first condition, a stranger was placed in a room with the dog. The human called out to the dog and when it made eye contact, the human yawned.
2. Under the second condition, the stranger followed the same steps with each animal, but rather than actually yawn, the human simply opened and closed their mouth. This would show if the animals were responding to an open mouth or a real yawn.
The Results
Of the 29 canines participating in the study, 21 showed a contagious yawning response to the human yawns (news.bbc.co.uk). Under the second condition when the human did not show a real yawn, there were no yawning responses from the canines. Although Dr. Senju noted that they couldn’t entirely rule out stress-induced yawning, which is common, this is still quite a step toward showing empathy from canines to humans.
The dogs you love and trust apparently feel quite the same way. Dogs are already obedient and loyal companions and the communication abilities between humans and animals give each species excellent understanding of the other. To add empathy toward their human counterparts to the list of reasons why they make excellent domestic pets is a bonus.
Resources
1. mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_05_06_slnmlb_phimlb_1
2. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7541633.stm
http://myevt.com/news/can-dogs-catch-yawns-humans
What do you think? Do dogs have empathy?
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