Research Shows that Dogs Have the Ability to Detect Human Lies

 A new study suggests that dogs are smarter than we think and don't mind when they think we're lying.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, examined whether dogs, like humans, can use cues to judge people's honesty. So, in some cases, dogs can understand that someone is cheating, while primates and children can't even do it.

"We used to think that dogs would behave like children under five and monkeys, but now we speculate that dogs may understand when someone tricks them," said co-author Ludwig Huber from the University of Vienna.

How do you check this? For dogs, food is always the main motivator. Researchers conducted a simple experiment with 260 dogs of various breeds, including schnauzers, retrievers, border collies, and greyhounds, to find food hidden in barrels.

Dogs can follow their instincts when food placement is misguided, according to researchers.

The dogs were given two opaque buckets and taught to hide the food on the advice of an unidentified person. Humans tap buckets for treats, watchdogs, and issue voice commands, according to research.

Next, the dog watched as an unidentified second person moved the litter box where the food was located, sometimes in the presence of the other person, sometimes not. In other words, half of the dogs ignored the human's suggestion of which crate to approach if the human wasn't present when the switch occurred, meaning dogs that knew the human didn't know the crate what is a food container.

What's more, some of the dogs that ignored the human's advice were simply misunderstood, suggesting that the dogs knew the human was lying to them. The dogs also showed that they knew to manipulate and followed their own visual experience rather than human communication, contrary to what the researchers expected.

The researchers noted that in previous studies, primates and young children were more likely to follow the advice of liars despite observations they knew were true. This suggests that dogs do not trust human advice very much.

 Meanwhile, previous research has shown that dogs are cheaters. Because they evolved so closely to humans, not only are they willing to interact with us, but they also know very well how to... manipulate us.