Scientists claim that the scent of human stress impacts dogs’ behavior. Find out the details.
A study conducted by the University of Bristol and published in Scientific Reports determined that the Dogs react to the smell of stressed people and that this scent has specific effects on their emotional state, their perception of rewards and their ability to learn. Animals develop negative behaviors when faced with the olfactory perception of tense people, but in the absence of that aroma, their behavior is “optimistic.”
Dogs’ ability to detect stress and the changes in their behavior that this produces is something that is quite obvious to many pet owners. In fact, this intuitive knowledge now has scientific support: Dogs experience emotional contagion due to the smell of human stress, which leads them to make more “pessimistic” decisions, according to a test carried out by the University of Bristol.
dogs home office.jpg
Why dogs become “pessimistic” when faced with human stress
The study on stress and dogs used a test called the “optimism or pessimism in animals”, to which they subjected 18 pairs of dogs and owners. First, the dogs were trained to identify two locations: one with a container that was always full of food and another with a container that was always empty. After learning the locations, the dogs tended to approach the place where the container with food was.
In a second stage, a third container was introduced in an “ambiguous” location, between the always full and the always empty, associated in some cases to odors caused by stress and in others to relaxed situations. The results showed that the stress scent made the dogs approach the ambiguous location slowly, while the relaxed scent made them investigate the contents of the container without hesitation.
The study concluded that “the scent of stress caused an increase in dogs’ negative expectations regarding the presence of food in the bowl.” The researchers highlighted that although dog owners are aware of their pets’ emotional attunement, this study shows that Even the scent of a stressed, unfamiliar human affects a dog’s emotional state.their perception of rewards and their learning capacity.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
