260 dogs of various breeds were involved in the assignments.
Dogs know how to recognize a lie: it turned out during the experiment set by scientists from Vienna. The tasks involved 260 dogs of various breeds.
First, they put two opaque containers in front of them, in one of which there was a treat. A person unknown to the dogs told them where he is.
Then the dogs watched the other stranger change the bowls.
The third person who appeared after that, trying to show the dogs where the food was now hidden, was ignored: more than 50% of the animals understood that he did not see the replacement process and could not give the right indication.
And, finally, during another test in front of both dogs and the observer, confusion with food occurred, and the animals were already familiar with this person.
But when he pointed out the wrong container, two-thirds of the subjects ignored his advice.
However, it is not yet clear why about half of the dogs still believed disinformation: perhaps they decided that trusting relations with a person are more important than a delicious reward.
Also, the results can be associated with the breeds of the participants in the experiment: in particular, the terriers were the most critical.
These hypotheses have to be checked during the following experiments. The psychological connection of dogs with people, and their ability to read emotions is a genetic feature that has been entrenched in millennia of joint existence.
