評論
打印
Science and technology.
科技。
Animal cognition
動物的認知
Man's best friend
人類的摯友
Can dogs really show empathy towards humans?
狗真的能感受人類的情緒嗎？
DOGS quickly become part of the family. Tales abound of dogs celebrating joy in a household or commiserating when tragedy strikes. This may not seem surprising after 15,000 years of co-evolution. But what hard evidence is there of dogs' empathy with humans? A new experiment suggests that behind all the waggy tails there really is something deeper going on.
狗很快成了人類家庭中的一員，它們慶祝家庭喜事，憐憫悲劇的發(fā)生，這種故事屢見不鮮。在人類與狗共同進化了一萬五千年之后，這點或許并不稀奇。但有沒有確鑿的證據(jù)能夠證明狗能體會人類的感受呢？最近一項新的實驗表明，狗狗背后的確隱藏著更深的含義。
Past experiments have hinted that animals can feel sympathy. Rats and monkeys had been found to forgo food to avoid delivering electric shocks to relatives. Similarly, apes have recently been documented consoling one another after conflicts. However, all these experiments and observations were demonstrating an animal's sensitivity to distress in other members of the same species. Deborah Custance and Jennifer Mayer of Goldsmiths College, London, set out to see if dogs could detect the emotional state of humans.
以往的一些實驗已經(jīng)間接地表明動物們也具有同情心。科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)，老鼠和猴子會放棄食物，以防自己受到電擊而危害同伴。類似的還有大猩猩，它們會在發(fā)生爭斗后彼此安慰。然而這些實驗和觀察都只能證明同物種的動物相互之間擁有感受痛楚的能力。倫敦金史密斯大學(xué)的黛博拉?科斯坦斯與詹妮弗?梅耶正在著手研究狗，看它們能否察覺人類的情緒狀態(tài)。
To do this, Dr Custance and Ms Mayer conducted an experiment to study the response of dogs when a nearby human suddenly began to cry. The researchers knew that interpreting responses would be difficult, since dogs tend to whine, nuzzle, lick, lay their heads in laps and fetch toys for people in distress. Although such actions hint at a dog wishing to offer comfort, they could also be signs of curiosity, or suggest that a dog is simply distressed by seeing its master upset.
為了研究這個問題，科斯坦斯博士與梅耶女士進行了一項試驗。他們將狗安排在一個人身邊，觀察狗在此人突然開始哭泣時的反應(yīng)。他們深知想要解讀狗的反應(yīng)是十分困難的，因為狗在這種條件下經(jīng)常會發(fā)出嗚嗚聲，把鼻子貼在人的大腿上并蹭蹭舔舔，還會在人類悲傷時叼來玩具哄人開心。盡管這樣的行為暗示著它們想要給主人提供安慰，但同時也可能僅僅代表了它們的好奇心，又或者它們只是看到主人懊惱感到憂慮罷了。
To work round this, the researchers presented 18 dogs of various breeds with four separate 20-second conditions. They included their owner crying, a stranger crying and both taking it in turns to hum "Mary had a little lamb". All four of these conditions were preceded by two minutes of mundane conversation between Ms Mayer, who filled the role of the stranger, and the dog's owner.
為了能夠正確解讀狗的反應(yīng)，研究者在實驗中采用了18條不同品種的狗并將它們分別置于時長均為20秒的四種不同的情境中，分別為主人在一旁哭泣、陌生人在一旁哭泣、主人與陌生人輪流對狗狗哼唱《瑪麗有只小羊羔》。在每種情境開始前，梅耶女士都會充當陌生人的角色與狗的主人進行時長兩分鐘的常規(guī)交談。
Dr Custance and Ms Mayer suspected that if exposure to crying led dogs to feel distress, then regardless of who was crying, the dog would go to their master to seek comfort. They also theorised that if curiosity, rather than empathy, was the driving force, then the humming would cause dogs to engage with people.
科斯坦斯博士與梅耶女士猜想如果狗看到人類哭泣會感到悲傷的話，無論是其主人還是陌生人，狗都會去主人那里尋求安慰。他們還建立了一個理論，如果使狗接近人類的是它們好奇心而非感情上的共鳴，那么哼唱小曲同樣會使狗跟人類進行互動。
As they report in Animal Cognition, "person-oriented behaviour" did sometimes take place when either the stranger or the owner hummed, but it was more than twice as likely to occur if someone was crying. This indicated that dogs were differentiating between odd behaviour and crying. And of the 15 dogs in the experiment that showed person-oriented responses when the stranger cried, all of them directed their attention towards the stranger rather than their owner.
正如他們在《動物的認知》中描述的一樣，不管是陌生人還是狗的主人哼唱小曲兒，有時候狗的確會對人類的這些活動作出一定回應(yīng)，但哭泣的人吸引到狗注意的概率比唱歌的人要高出兩倍以上。這表明狗能區(qū)分哭泣與其他一些奇怪的行為。在此次實驗中有15條狗在看到陌生人哭泣時表現(xiàn)出了同情人類的行為，這些狗都把注意力轉(zhuǎn)向了哭泣的陌生人而非它們的主人。
These discoveries suggest that dogs do have the ability to express empathetic concern. But although the results are clear enough, Dr Custance argues that more work needs to be done to be sure that such behaviour is true empathy. It is possible, she points out, that the dogs were drawing on previous experiences in which they were rewarded for approaching distressed human companions. Dog-owners, however, are unlikely to need any more convincing.
這些發(fā)現(xiàn)表明狗的確有表達關(guān)心的能力。科斯坦斯博士說，盡管結(jié)論已經(jīng)十分明確，我們?nèi)孕枰嘧龉泶_定它們的行為是否真的因為它們能體會人類的感受。她指出，狗可能是出于以往獲得的經(jīng)驗即靠近它們的人類同伴能獲得獎勵進而表現(xiàn)出這種行為。而對于狗能通人性這一點狗主人已經(jīng)十分清楚了。
