This is the experimental set-up used to test whether dogs can discriminate emotional expressions of human faces. (Photo Credit: Anjuli Barber, Messerli Research Institute)
Dogs can tell the difference between happy and angry human faces, a new study shows.
Researchers taught 11 dogs to discriminate between happy and angry human faces, and then tested them showing only half of the faces, mixing new faces and masking the teeth.
The authors conclude that dogs can discriminate between human’s emotional expressions, and rule out that discrimination was based on simple cues, such as the visibility of teeth.
Original research paper published in Current Biology on February 12, 2015.
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