Abstract
Most mammalian species produce facial expressions. Historically, animal facial expressions have been considered inflexible and involuntary displays of emotional states rather than active attempts to communicate with others. In the current study, we aimed to test whether domestic dog facial expressions are subject to audience effects and/ or changes in response to an arousing stimulus (e.g. food) alone. We presented dogs with an experimental situation in which a human demonstrator was either attending to them or turned away, and varied whether she presented food or not. Dogs produced significantly more facial movements when the human was attentive than when she was not. The food, however, as a non-social but arousing stimulus, did not affect the dogs’ behaviour. The current study is therefore evidence that dogs are sensitive to the human’s attentional state when producing facial expressions, suggesting that facial expressions are not just inflexible and involuntary displays of emotional states, but rather potentially active attempts to communicate with others.
Highlights
Most mammalian species produce facial expressions, which form meaningful and adaptive components of the animal’s behavioural repertoire
We aimed to test whether domestic dog facial expressions change in response to an highly arousing but non-social stimulus and/or the changing attentional state of their human audience
Waller et al (2013) analysed the facial expressions of dogs waiting to be rehomed in shelters, and found a negative correlation between the frequency of facial movements the dogs produced when interacting with a stranger, and the rate at which they were re-homed
Summary
Most mammalian species produce facial expressions, which form meaningful and adaptive components of the animal’s behavioural repertoire. There is some evidence that non-human primate facial expressions can be mediated by the presence of an audience, suggesting that the sender has some understanding of whether the expressions can be seen by others. To date there is no systematic experimental evidence, that facial expressions in species other than primates, are produced with similar sensitivity to the attention of the audience. We aimed to test whether domestic dog facial expressions change in response to an highly arousing but non-social stimulus (food) and/or the changing attentional state of their human audience. Dogs are sensitive to the human’s attentional state during communicative interactions with humans. The more often dogs produced a specific facial movement, Action Unit 101 (which raises the inner eyebrow) the quicker they were re-homed. Raising the inner eyebrow changes the visual appearance of the eyes and makes them look bigger, a key feature of paedomorphism
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