Proximate Mechanisms of Canine Cooperation: Prosocial attitudes and inequity aversion

Proximate Mechanisms of Canine Cooperation: Prosocial attitudes and inequity aversion Dr. Friederike Range Social canines are renown for their cooperation in regard to breeding, hunting, territorial defense (e.g. wolves) as well as interactions with humans (domestic dogs). Moreover, although wolves and dogs are closely related, they are adapted to very different environments. Wolves live as a family unit and cooperate with each other similar to humans in early hunter-gatherer societies, whereas dogs are domesticated and live as a member of human families in our modern society. These aspects make canines the ideal non-primate model for investigating cooperation as an adaptation to specific environments and to elucidate the functional relevance of mechanisms involved in cooperation. Moreover, direct comparisons of the proximate mechanisms that initiate cooperation in wolves and dogs allows for testing specific hypotheses in regard to the effects of domestication. Nevertheless, compared to primates, very little is known about the proximate mechanisms underlying canine cooperation. Here, I propose a series of experiments in wolves (N = 17-20) and identically raised and kept dogs (N= 17-20) that will focus on cognitive processes that are closely embedded in the emotional system and thought to be involved in triggering, maintaining and regulating primate cooperation. While empathy and social tolerance have been proposed to trigger human cooperation, inequity aversion and intolerance is likely to constrain cooperation. In this project, we will try to understand these processes at the individual and relationship level both with conspecific and human partners. Accordingly, we will test if wolves and dogs show pro-social tendencies and react towards unequal reward distributions both when confronted with conspecifics and human partners. Here we will use experimental paradigms with increasing complexity to probe the cognitive and emotional limits of the animals. The influence of the quality of the relationship on the subject`s reactions towards its partner will be elucidated. This proposal is extending current work of the applicant that investigates the "cognitive tools and emotional context in the development of canine cooperation" (FWF project P21244) by assessing in much greater detail the emotionally embedded cognitive processes guiding cooperation in wolves and dogs. The proposal is based on considerable experience in regard to the proposed experiments and animal species investigated by the applicant and her national and international collaborators. The studies will be conducted at the recently established Wolf Science Center that was co-founded by the applicant and where wolf and dog packs are raised and kept in identical housing conditions which ensures that behavioral differences between wolves and dogs will be based to large degree on genetic wolf-dog differences rather than individual experiences.

The current research project set out to investigate two aspects thought to influence cooperation: prosocial attitudes and sensitivity to unequal treatment. A generous/prosocial attitude is thought to promote cooperation. Whereas the perception of being treated unequally by your cooperative partner, may help you to decide whether to continue to cooperate with him/her or not. We studied these two topics in domestic dogs, a species which is thought to be rather special due to its long shared cooperative history with humans. Regarding prosocial behaviours, in a series of experiments we found that dogs will pull a tray to deliver food for a dog that lives together with them in the same household but not for a dog they have just met. So dogs can be prosocial towards a familiar dog partner but they tend not to be prosocial towards unfamiliar dogs. In the next set of tests, we found that rather surprisingly, when presented with the possibility of pulling a tray to deliver food to their owners, dogs were not prosocial! And they were also not prosocial to people they did not know. It is not so clear why dogs were not prosocial towards their owner, one possibility is that delivering food to humans is just too strange a situation for dogs, so future studies will need to be done to test whether dogs can be prosocial towards their owner in other ways. As for the perception of inequity, we found that when two dogs carry out the same action, but one is rewarded and the other is not, the disadvantaged partner will get annoyed and stop working. This perception of being treated unequally lingers on and has consequences also for later interactions, since the partner treated unequally will share less food with its partner after the event and also keep away from both it and the experimenter delivering the unequal food distribution. The reduced food sharing and avoidance show how unequal treatment can affect later cooperation. Taken together these results show that dogs can show prosocial behaviours towards their dog partners and can be sensitive and respond negatively to the unequal distribution of food between them when they are carrying out the same actions. These studies allow us to better understand the psychology of dogs, and potentially inform both the ethical decisions about their welfare and the applied aspects relating to our dog-human relationship.