Please love me. Image: Shutterstock
Dogs may have tapped into a uniquely human bonding mechanism, ensuring our love and care for man’s best friend: eye contact.
Researchers at Azabu University in Japan convinced a bunch of dog owners to gaze into their pets’ eyes, and found that oxytocin levels rose not just in the humans – but in the dogs, too. New Scientist created this animated video to illustrate the findings.
Knock-on chemical and behavioural effects occur when humans bond: eye contact leads to release of the “love hormone” oxytocin, which elicits caring behaviour, and this in turn causes the release of more oxytocin. This loop has been shown to be important for human bonding, for example between mothers and their children.
Oxytocin bonding occurs in other mammals, too, but humans were thought to be unique in using eye contact as part of this cycle.
In contrast, when Nagasawa’s team tested hand-reared wolves, they found no such effect, and wolves spent little time gazing into their owners’ eyes.
They then sprayed either oxytocin or a placebo into 27 dogs’ noses, in a randomised experiment. Female dogs that received the hormone spent more time staring longingly at their owners, and oxytocin levels also rose in those people.
“Dogs tap into human bonding system to get close to our hearts” [New Scientist]
Read the study: “Oxytocin-gaze positive loop and the coevolution of human-dog bonds” [sciencemag.org]