The world of science graces dog lovers with very exciting news today, as it turns out that talking to your furry friends is actually a sign of intelligence. All makes perfect sense now, doesn’t it?
Research by the University of Chicago claims that those of us that chat to our four-legged friends show our instinctive need for companionship (love us), and our desire to build character in others. You now have an official scientific argument for those soulless people that say talking to your dog is stupid. You’re not stupid. In fact, you’re actually anthropomorphizing, how fancy of you.
We already didn’t trust those people that don’t act like every dog they see is the biggest bundle of joy in the world, but now we do even less. The guy behind the research, Nicholas Epsey gives us further reason to ghost the judgers. He says that 'historically, anthropomorphizing [assigning human minds to non-human objects] has been treated as a sign of childishness or stupidity, but it’s actually a natural by-product of the tendency that makes humans uniquely smart on this planet.' When we were young we did this with cuddly toys, but most people grow out of it. However, Epsey’s research claims that those of us who didn’t are both more intelligent and show a higher level of creativity and self-awareness.
The study doesn’t just cover pets, showing that naming things like our car and household items, or attributing emotions to them, is a sign of higher brain function. Apparently, there are three primal reasons why we might anthropomorphize an object: the non-human subject looks like it has a face, we’d like to be friends with it, or we can’t explain its unpredictable behaviour. The study says our willingness to believe our pets have a certain type of personality 'is just the by-product of having an active, intelligent social cognition – of having a brain that is programmed to see and perceive minds.'
While I for one would love to use this study as an excuse to communicate solely with animals from now on, Epsey actively links this research to our social behaviours. He is in fact a behavioural science professor, not a modern-day Doctor Dolittle (I know, we were sad too), and has written a book called Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want, so he’s all about the human connections. Turns out those of us that spend our days nattering to our pets are actually more empathetic to other people as well, as these types of interactions use the same psychological processes as recognising the mind of another human being. He believes that the link between anthropomorphic tendencies and social intelligence is likely to be strong.
So, if you’re convinced that you have the sassiest pet around, then looks like they’ve got a pretty intelligent owner too. And yes, I have shamelessly filled this article with cute dog GIFs, you’re welcome.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.