Man’s Best Friend? Nah, Actually Dogs Are Pretty Selfish
[Image: Getty]
Somehow dogs have earned a reputation over time for being loyal, patient and loving creatures, bending over backwards in their quest to help man out.
Not so, according to science.
Research published in PLOS ONE found that dogs don’t actually seem to give a toss about human’s needs.
Researchers put 24 dogs in a room together and allowed them to watch as various items were placed in different parts of the room. These included: items scientists had allowed the dogs to watch them using previously like notebooks (items that were obviously useful to humans), fun dog toys and other items with no significance.
[Photo: Getty]
The researchers then pretended to be looking for the useful items, hoping that the dogs would help them find them, having seen them use the objects previously.
No such luck.
Rather than do their bit to help man’s cause, the dogs just indicated where they knew the fun dog toys had been placed. Even when they didn’t indicate the toy’s location, they still showed no preference for pointing out the useful items over the insignificant ones.
So, all in all, dogs either can’t really understand whether something is useful or not, or they’re selfish and deliberately mess us around. Since nature is cruel and unforgiving, we’re going to guess at the latter.
These before-and-after makeover photos of dogs are giving us so much life right now
