人類又被騙了 狗狗並不會內疚

Man's best friend certainly looks ashamed when he's being scolded for chewing up your favorite slippers, but scientists say dogs don't actually experience guilt.

人類最好的朋友因爲咬壞了主人最喜歡的拖鞋而捱罵的時候，看起來楚楚可憐，好像很自責的樣子，但是科學家說狗狗根本就不會感受到內疚。

If you've ever had a dog, you know the signature canine "guilty look": ears back, head cowered, tail tucked.

如果你養過狗，那你肯定知道狗狗們的“內疚臉”：耳朵朝後，腦袋瑟瑟發抖，尾巴蜷成一團。

Seventy-four percent of dog owners believe their dogs experience guilt, but animal behaviorists say dogs lack the ability to feel shame. They say that guilty look is simply a reaction to you.

74%的狗主人相信他們的狗狗會覺得內疚，但是動物行爲學專家稱狗狗沒有感到愧疚這項功能。他們說這種內疚臉就是擺給你看的。

While there's plenty of evidence that man's best friend experiences primary emotions, such as fear and happiness, there's little evidence that dogs feel secondary emotions like pride, jealousy and guilt.

雖然有很多證據證明汪星人能感受一些基本情緒，比如恐懼和快樂，但是鮮有證據表示狗狗有次級情緒(包括基本情緒的各種變化及混合情緒)比如自豪，嫉妒和愧疚。

Scientist say this is because secondary emotions require self-awareness and a level of cognition that dogs may not have.

科學家說這是因爲次級情緒需要有自我意識和一定程度認知能力，而狗狗可能並不具備。

Alexandra Horowitz, a psychology professor and principal investigator at the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab at Columbia University, conducted one of the first studies on dog "guilt" in 2009. She videotaped 14 dogs in a series of trials and observed how they reacted when their owners left the room after instructing them not to eat a treat. While the owner was gone, Horowitz gave some of the dogs the forbidden treat before asking the owners back in. In some cases the owners were told their dog had eaten the treat, but in others, they were told their dog had behaved. However, Horowitz wasn't always honest with them.

心理學教授及哥倫比亞大學Horowitz犬類認知實驗室首席研究員Alexandra Horowitz在2009年首次對於狗狗“愧疚感”進行了研究。她拍攝了14條狗狗一系列的實驗錄像，並觀察當主人命令它們不許吃零食，然後離開房間後它們會如何表現。當主人離開後，Horowit給了其中一部分狗狗一點零食。一部分主人被告知狗狗吃掉了這些零食，而其他主人被告知狗狗遵守了規則。而這些信息並不完全符合實際情況。

Horowitz found that the dogs' guilty looks had little to do with whether they'd eaten the treat or not. In fact, dogs that hadn't eaten it but were scolded by misinformed owners tended to exhibit the most elements of the "guilty look."

Horowitz發現，狗狗的內疚臉與它們是否偷吃零食並無太多關聯。事實上，雖然沒有偷吃零食，但是因爲主人被提供虛假信息而受到冤枉的狗狗還是會展現出一副“內疚臉”。

Horowitz says this shows that the dogs' body language is actually a response to their owner’s behavior — not an experience of shame for a misdeed.

Horowitz說這證明狗狗的肢體語言其實只是對於主人行爲的一種反饋——並非因爲犯錯而感到內疚。

"The 'guilty look' would be better called the 'submissive look,' as in, 'Don’t punish me for whatever it is you think I did,'" Horowitz wrote in The Washington Post.

Horowitz寫道：“與其叫‘內疚臉’還不如叫‘順從臉’比較合適，這幅表情的意思就是‘不管你覺得我幹了什麼，請不要懲罰我’。”

Why then, do dogs look so ashamed when we scold them?

那麼爲何狗狗遭到責備的時候看起來這麼愧疚呢？

That look of guilt is likely the result of a learned association. When you scold your dog for chewing a pair of slippers or leaving a mess on the carpet, he quickly learns that if he lowers his head and tucks his tail, the undesirable response — raised voice and angry expression — is more likely to cease.

那副內疚的表情很可能是學習的成果。當你責備狗狗咬壞一雙拖鞋或者在地毯上拉稀，它很快就明白如果它低下頭、蜷起尾巴，那些不良的反應——大嗓門和憤怒的表現最有可能會消失。

Almost 60 percent of dog owners claim that their dogs' guilty behavior leads them to scold their dog less, according to a study by Universities Federation for Animal Welfare.

根據高等學校動物福利聯盟的一項研究顯示，近60%的狗主人說狗狗的愧疚表現讓他們不忍心繼續責備。

Still, scientific findings haven't deterred the popularity of websites like where dog owners submit photos of their disorderly dogs with humorous confessions.

但是，科學研究還是無法阻止人們在DogShaming()這種網站上給犯了錯的狗狗配上搞笑的自首語。

"I don't think dogs actually feel shame," Pascale Lemire, creator of the website, told The Associated Press. "I think they know how to placate us with this sad puppy-dog look that makes us think they're ashamed of what they've done.

網站創始人Pascale Lemire告訴記者：“我並不覺得狗狗真的會覺得內疚。我認爲它們只是用‘小狗臉’來讓我們覺得它們對自己所做的事情感到內疚，以此來平息我們的怒火。”

"My guess is that their thinking is: 'Oh man, my owner is super mad about something, but I don't know what, but he seems to calm down when I give him the sad face, so let's try that again.'"

“我猜它們的想法是：‘哎呀，我的主人因爲什麼事情超級生氣，雖然我不知道是什麼事情，但是如果我擺出一副難過的樣子他好像就會冷靜一點，所以我再做一次這個表情好啦。’”