Humans and primates aren’t the only animals that understand the concept of fairness. According to research presented recently at the 122nd Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, dogs are also able to judge whether something is fair or not.
Alexandra Horowitz of Barnard College, the author of the presentation titled “Fair is Fine, but More is Better: Limits to Inequity Aversion in the Domestic Dog”, conducted a study of fairness-related behavior in dogs.
The Study
During the experiment, the trainers either under-rewarded or over-rewarded the control dogs, or rewarded both dogs fairly.
After a while, once the dogs had gotten to know the trainers, they were allowed to choose which trainer to approach, in the absence of any other dogs.
This is when almost all dogs preferred trainers that had over-rewarded the control dog, and also avoided the under-rewarding trainers, but also the fair ones.
On the other hand, older dogs were significantly more likely to prefer the trainers who were fair, suggesting that canines may develop a sense of fairness over time as a consequence of long-term and healthy relationships with humans.
Once again, dogs and humans proved to be a great combination. We complement each other and make one hell of a duo.