August 6, 2024, 4:41 pm | Read time: 4 minutes
Was that me? Dogs can quickly give the impression that they are ashamed of their actions. But are animals really capable of such complex emotions? PETBOOK author and behavioral biologist Saskia Schneider reveals the answer.
“He knows exactly what he’s done!” That’s what many dog owners say about their four-legged friends when they’ve done something wrong again. Left alone for only a short time, they’ve ripped up the sofa cushion or peed on the carpet. The anger is great, and while the owners scold the dog, you can see a sense of guilt all over the dog’s body: sad eyes, drooping head, and crouched posture. For many, it is pretty clear that the dog is ashamed. But is that really the case? Or are we projecting our own moral standards onto the animal? PETBOOK investigated whether dogs can be ashamed.
Overview
What does it mean to be ashamed?
Shame is an unbearable feeling of embarrassment that arises from remorse, exposure, or the realization of one’s own failure. But we also feel ashamed when we have done something indecent, dishonorable, or ridiculous and realize it.
The feeling of shame is very closely linked to values and morals, which can vary depending on the culture. For example, burping at the table can be embarrassing for us, whereas, in other cultures, it is seen as a compliment to the cook.
Shame is a complex emotion
Feeling ashamed is a very complex emotion. You need to have an idea of values or morals (what is right and what is wrong?) to realize that you have just broken these and then assess whether this was done out of your own weakness and was a mistake or whether you regret it.
It is extremely questionable whether dogs are capable of all these steps. It is also doubtful that dogs—as complex and highly socialized as they are—have anything like a moral code.
Dogs do not have a guilty conscience
Dogs can distinguish and learn very clearly which behavior is desirable or undesirable. But if they make a mistake or do something that is actually forbidden because, for example, the roast simply smells too tempting or the urge to bite something is too great, they don’t have a guilty conscience afterward as we humans do.
Why assume dogs are ashamed
Dogs are sensitive creatures that are very good at interpreting human emotions. They notice immediately when we are angry and try to calm us down with their behavior. They approach us with a crouched posture, lowered head, and “puppy dog” eyes. However, we humans often interpret this behavior as an admission of guilt. Several scientific studies have also shown this.
In a survey conducted in 2021 as part of their study, a team of Hungarian researchers found that most dog owners perceive dogs’ behavior in certain situations as guilty and believe that the animals know when they have done something wrong. The main trigger for this is the dog’s “guilty look.”
What’s really behind the “guilty look”
The US psychologist Alexandra Horowitz investigated precisely this “guilty look” in her study. She showed that dogs did not show a “guilty look” more often when they did something forbidden – in this case, eating a forbidden treat unobserved – than when they did not.
In contrast, other studies have observed that dogs mainly look guilty when their owners scold them, writes Horowitz in the publication of her findings. This suggests that the dog’s guilty look is more a reaction to its owner’s behavior than an awareness of wrongdoing.
Conclusion
In summary, guilt and shame are complex behaviors. Feeling them requires an understanding of cause and effect in relation to time. However, dogs live in the here and now and usually react directly to things. It is doubtful that they make a connection between their owner’s reaction and something that happened a few hours ago.
Although many studies suggest that dogs cannot feel guilt or shame, ultimately, we can never be sure. After all, animals can’t tell us how they felt or what they were thinking about while they are waiting for us to come home and find a chewed-up shoe.
The researchers from Hungary were able to show, however, that a dog’s guilty look can lead to its owners scolding the animal less. So, the theory that dogs appease us with their behavior seems to work.
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Sources
- psychologytoday.com, „Do Dogs Really Feel Shame and Guilt?“ (accessed on 09/06/2023)
- blogs.scientificamerican.com, „Do Dogs Feel Guilty?“ (accessed on 09/06/2023)
- sciencealert.com, „Dogs May Look Ashamed, But They Don’t Feel Guilt, Experts Say“ (accessed on 09/06/2023)
- quarks.de, „Darum schämen wir uns“ (accessed on 09/06/2023)