William Atkins
Thursday, 08 January 2009 20:24
Science -
Biology
Page 2 of 3
Because of the lack of a clear understanding about inequity aversion in non-primate species the researchers decided to investigate whether domestic dogs show an awareness to the unfairness of rewards given to them by humans after completing a trick.
The researchers had the dogs shake hands and when the dogs did it successfully they got bits of bread. The dogs performed the trick in the presence of another dog or alone.
In some cases they were given bread (a reward) and in other cases they were not given a reward.
They commented,
“We found differences in dogs tested without food reward in the presence of a rewarded partner compared with both a baseline condition (both partners rewarded) and an asocial control situation (no reward, no partner), indicating that the presence of a rewarded partner matters.”
The researchers found that the dogs eventually stopped shaking hands with the humans if rewards were not supplied.
They, however, did continue to shake hands longer (without being given a reward) if their partner also did not get a reward.
The researchers did find differences betwwen primate species and the dogs (a non-primate species). Please read page three for this discusion.
