Dog Owners Read Their Pets’ Expressions Much Like Human Faces

[FAM Times=Reporter Woo Ji-young] The British daily newspaper Daily Mailreported on the 3rd that “an experiment by research teams at the University of Helsinki and Aalto University found that dog owners perceive their pets’ facial expressions much as they do human expressions.”

The researchers conducted a study involving 34 participants. They asked the participants to view three photographs each of human and dog facial expressions, then select the emotion that matched each expression. The photographs showed human and dog faces with “happy, neutral and threatening expressions,” while the basic emotion choices were “happiness, sadness, surprise, disgust, fear and anger.”

The results showed that people with a greater ability to empathize with dogs perceived dogs’ expressions more quickly and intensely than those with less ability. The researchers also found that people with a strong understanding of dogs interpret canine expressions in a way similar to how they understand human expressions.

According to the Daily Mail, Dr. Miiamaaria Kujala of the University of Helsinki said, “This is because faces are biologically important and meaningful stimuli for humans.”

Dr. Kujala said, “When people quickly empathize with a dog’s expression, they form a judgment about it, but the accuracy of that judgment cannot currently be considered reliable.”

Reporter Woo Ji-young wjy@famtimes.co.kr