Familiarity bias and physiological responses in contagious yawning by dogs support link to empathy.

In humans, the susceptibility to yawn contagion has been theoretically and empirically related to our capacity for empathy. Because of its relevance to evolutionary biology, this phenomenon has been the focus of recent investigations in non-human species. In line with the empathic hypothesis, contag...

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Autores principales:	Teresa Romero, Akitsugu Konno, Toshikazu Hasegawa
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2013
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/c3842b83eb26407caa3765e5267d2660
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:c3842b83eb26407caa3765e5267d26602021-11-18T09:00:43ZFamiliarity bias and physiological responses in contagious yawning by dogs support link to empathy.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0071365https://doaj.org/article/c3842b83eb26407caa3765e5267d26602013-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/23951146/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203In humans, the susceptibility to yawn contagion has been theoretically and empirically related to our capacity for empathy. Because of its relevance to evolutionary biology, this phenomenon has been the focus of recent investigations in non-human species. In line with the empathic hypothesis, contagious yawning has been shown to correlate with the level of social attachment in several primate species. Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) have also shown the ability to yawn contagiously. To date, however, the social modulation of dog contagious yawning has received contradictory support and alternative explanations (i.e., yawn as a mild distress response) could explain positive evidence. The present study aims to replicate contagious yawning in dogs and to discriminate between the two possible mediating mechanisms (i.e., empathic vs. distress related response). Twenty-five dogs observed familiar (dog's owner) and unfamiliar human models (experimenter) acting out a yawn or control mouth movements. Concurrent physiological measures (heart rate) were additionally monitored for twenty-one of the subjects. The occurrence of yawn contagion was significantly higher during the yawning condition than during the control mouth movements. Furthermore, the dogs yawned more frequently when watching the familiar model than the unfamiliar one demonstrating that the contagiousness of yawning in dogs correlated with the level of emotional proximity. Moreover, subjects' heart rate did not differ among conditions suggesting that the phenomenon of contagious yawning in dogs is unrelated to stressful events. Our findings are consistent with the view that contagious yawning is modulated by affective components of the behavior and may indicate that rudimentary forms of empathy could be present in domesticated dogs.Teresa RomeroAkitsugu KonnoToshikazu HasegawaPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 8, Iss 8, p e71365 (2013)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Teresa Romero Akitsugu Konno Toshikazu Hasegawa Familiarity bias and physiological responses in contagious yawning by dogs support link to empathy.
description	In humans, the susceptibility to yawn contagion has been theoretically and empirically related to our capacity for empathy. Because of its relevance to evolutionary biology, this phenomenon has been the focus of recent investigations in non-human species. In line with the empathic hypothesis, contagious yawning has been shown to correlate with the level of social attachment in several primate species. Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) have also shown the ability to yawn contagiously. To date, however, the social modulation of dog contagious yawning has received contradictory support and alternative explanations (i.e., yawn as a mild distress response) could explain positive evidence. The present study aims to replicate contagious yawning in dogs and to discriminate between the two possible mediating mechanisms (i.e., empathic vs. distress related response). Twenty-five dogs observed familiar (dog's owner) and unfamiliar human models (experimenter) acting out a yawn or control mouth movements. Concurrent physiological measures (heart rate) were additionally monitored for twenty-one of the subjects. The occurrence of yawn contagion was significantly higher during the yawning condition than during the control mouth movements. Furthermore, the dogs yawned more frequently when watching the familiar model than the unfamiliar one demonstrating that the contagiousness of yawning in dogs correlated with the level of emotional proximity. Moreover, subjects' heart rate did not differ among conditions suggesting that the phenomenon of contagious yawning in dogs is unrelated to stressful events. Our findings are consistent with the view that contagious yawning is modulated by affective components of the behavior and may indicate that rudimentary forms of empathy could be present in domesticated dogs.
format	article
author	Teresa Romero Akitsugu Konno Toshikazu Hasegawa
author_facet	Teresa Romero Akitsugu Konno Toshikazu Hasegawa
author_sort	Teresa Romero
title	Familiarity bias and physiological responses in contagious yawning by dogs support link to empathy.
title_short	Familiarity bias and physiological responses in contagious yawning by dogs support link to empathy.
title_full	Familiarity bias and physiological responses in contagious yawning by dogs support link to empathy.
title_fullStr	Familiarity bias and physiological responses in contagious yawning by dogs support link to empathy.
title_full_unstemmed	Familiarity bias and physiological responses in contagious yawning by dogs support link to empathy.
title_sort	familiarity bias and physiological responses in contagious yawning by dogs support link to empathy.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2013
url	https://doaj.org/article/c3842b83eb26407caa3765e5267d2660
work_keys_str_mv	AT teresaromero familiaritybiasandphysiologicalresponsesincontagiousyawningbydogssupportlinktoempathy AT akitsugukonno familiaritybiasandphysiologicalresponsesincontagiousyawningbydogssupportlinktoempathy AT toshikazuhasegawa familiaritybiasandphysiologicalresponsesincontagiousyawningbydogssupportlinktoempathy
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Familiarity bias and physiological responses in contagious yawning by dogs support link to empathy.

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