Get the latest Science News and Discoveries

Human crying stresses out dogs more than pigs - EurekAlert

Researchers at ELTE Department of Ethology in Budapest compared how companion dogs and companion miniature pigs from all over the world reacted to human emotional vocalizations. They found that both dogs and pigs differentiated between human crying (a negative but very usual vocalization) and human humming (not negative but unusual vocalization), but their reactions to the sounds differed. Dogs' responses indicated that they matched their emotional state with the emotional content of the vocalizations they heard, supporting the concept of emotional contagion. In contrast, pigs exhibited more stress behaviours when exposed to the more neutral but unusual humming. These findings suggest that the special selection of dogs for dependency on humans during domestication may play a crucial role in facilitating emotional contagion induced by human sounds.

None

Get the Android app