It is commonly taken for granted by dog owners that the dogs are able to discern the real nature of a human being. Reminiscences by word of mouth are that dogs behave differently with different people, so people conclude that dogs can assess human nature. That could fit into typical work on animal thinking, where species such as chimpanzees have proved themselves able to establish human beings’ reputations through firsthand experience as well as by observing others’ sides. But the question is, does the dog indeed evaluate human behaviour, or are such evaluations the product of human projection?
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Literature Review on Canine Social Evaluation
Previous studies at the Wolf Science Centre in Austria examined whether pack-living dogs and wolves could form reputations based on interactions with humans. These experiments yielded inconclusive results in the sense that the animals did not prefer generous over selfish individuals. The researchers speculated that the lack of pre-existing human interaction might have restricted the evaluative responses by the animals. In light of this, more research was necessary involving dogs that regularly interact with humans, particularly in a domestic setting.
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Aim of the Study
A new study by Hoi-Lam Jim and colleagues at Kyoto University tried to determine whether pet dogs of all ages could potentially base people’s reputations on direct experience as well as on seeing them. More specifically, the study was curious about testing whether or not age predicts a dog’s ability to evaluate people in a provision-of-food situation.
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Research Methodology
40 pet dogs were taken for the study and grouped according to age-young, adult, and aged. Throughout the observation time, the dogs watched a demonstrator dog interacting with two people: one who was giving out food (liberal) and one who was not giving out food (selfish). Then, during the period of direct interaction, the same pet dogs were allowed to interact with both people. Researchers took note of the individual to whom the dog proceeded first and also observed affiliative displays such as proximity, jumping, or attention.
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Main Findings
In a surprising finding, the experiment showed that dogs across all ages did not display a decisive preference for the altruistic human over the self-interested one. Neither the observational (indirect) nor the direct interaction time led to steady affiliative responding toward the human who fed the demo dog. The responses observed did not significantly depart from chance, indicating that the dogs did not draw reputational inferences about human action.
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Critical Analysis
These findings are inconsistent with popular wisdom that dogs are competent to assess human character, even in experimental situations. Researchers also stated that reputation formation is a very cognitive process that may not come naturally to domesticated dogs, as has previously been assumed. Methodological limitations—a reliance on two-choice paradigms being one such weakness—may also explain observed effects. Non-behavioural differentiation does not necessarily establish that dogs are incapable of social evaluation, but leaves more freedom for interpreting canine cognition hitherto tested by extant methods.
Jim and colleagues also comment on the importance of broadening the research sample. Specialised or unusual life experience dogs, such as service dogs, police dogs, or free-ranging dogs, may perform differently on the same evaluative tasks. Also, environmental factors and individual temperament characteristics of dogs may affect how they determine human interactions more subtly than existing tests do. The assumption that dogs can judge human character intuitively is not yet substantiated by stable scientific findings. The study at Kyoto University uncovers the importance of pet dogs not demonstrating a straightforward preference for kind people, even following direct and indirect experience.
Conclusion
The findings highlight the intricacies involved in studying the cognition of dogs and propose that reputation construction in dogs could rely on factors to be fully appreciated. Subsequent studies need to redress methodological limitations and use a greater number of canine subjects to make more conclusive findings.
FAQs
1. Can dogs judge a person’s character?
Current research suggests dogs do not consistently form reputations of humans based on behaviour. They showed no preference for generous versus selfish individuals in controlled tests.
2. How was the study conducted?
Dogs observed humans interacting with another dog and then interacted with those humans themselves. Researchers noted behaviours like approach choice and proximity.
3. Did age influence the dogs’ responses?
No, dogs of all age groups—young, adult, and senior—responded similarly. Age did not impact their ability to evaluate human behaviour.
4. What do these findings mean for dog owners?
While dogs may appear intuitive, this study shows they might not evaluate character in the way humans believe. Their responses may be more context-dependent than moral.
5. Why might the dogs have failed to judge the humans?
Researchers suggest limitations in experimental design or the two-choice test format may have impacted results. It does not rule out the capacity entirely.
6. What are the next steps in this research area?
Future studies will involve more diverse dog populations, like service or street dogs. Broader methods may reveal more about dogs’ social cognition.
References +
Jim, H.-L., et al. (2025). Do dogs form reputations of humans? No effect of age after indirect and direct experience in a food-giving situation. Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-025-01967-w
Bray EE, MacLean EL, Hare BA (2014) Context specificity of inhibitory control in dogs. Anim Cogn 17:15–31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-013-0633-z
Carballo F, Freidin E, Casanave EB, Bentosela M (2017) Dogs’ recognition of human selfish and generous attitudes requires little but critical experience with people. PLoS ONE 12(10):e0185696. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185696
Chijiiwa H, Kuroshima H, Hori Y, Anderson JR, Fujita K (2015) Dogs avoid people who behave negatively to their owner: third-party affective evaluation. Anim Behav 106:123–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.05.018
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