Article: « Our stress pushes dogs to make more pessimistic decisions »
Response:
According to a study by the University of Lincoln, dogs tend to make more pessimistic decisions when they sense that their owner is stressed. During the experiment, dogs were trained to associate a specific sound with a reward (food). Then, the owners were asked to speak a neutral or stressful sentence before the sound was played. The researchers found that when the owners spoke stressfully, the dogs were less likely to approach the sound expecting a reward, indicating a more pessimistic decision-making process. This suggests that stress might negatively impact the relationship between dogs and their owners, causing the animals to misinterpret their owner’s emotional state and react differently.