Leiden University Student Repository

Embleton, Rachel (2023)

The impact of negative experiences with dogs (Canis familiaris) on pupil mimicry in Humans: Can we predict mimicry based on past experience?

Master thesis | Psychology (MSc)

Past experiences influence our attitudes in social interactions, particularly negative experiences. Negative experiences and attitudes shape our present-day behaviour. Research identifies empathy and attitude as precursors to mimicry. Pupil mimicry can indicate trust and bonding in human-human interactions, as the pupil provides a look into people’s mental state or intentions. It is unclear whether pupil mimicry in human-human interactions extends to other species. This research investigates how factors such as, negative experience and attitude, can change pupil mimicry responses with conspecifics (humans) and cross-species (bonobos and dogs). Using a Repeated-measures ANOVA, the effect of Species (human, bonobo or dog) and Pupil action (dilating or constricting) on pupil mimicry was investigated. This analysis found that while the interaction was not significant, the main effects of Species and Pupil action were. Secondly, the impact of negative experiences with dogs on pupil...Show morePast experiences influence our attitudes in social interactions, particularly negative experiences. Negative experiences and attitudes shape our present-day behaviour. Research identifies empathy and attitude as precursors to mimicry. Pupil mimicry can indicate trust and bonding in human-human interactions, as the pupil provides a look into people’s mental state or intentions. It is unclear whether pupil mimicry in human-human interactions extends to other species. This research investigates how factors such as, negative experience and attitude, can change pupil mimicry responses with conspecifics (humans) and cross-species (bonobos and dogs). Using a Repeated-measures ANOVA, the effect of Species (human, bonobo or dog) and Pupil action (dilating or constricting) on pupil mimicry was investigated. This analysis found that while the interaction was not significant, the main effects of Species and Pupil action were. Secondly, the impact of negative experiences with dogs on pupil mimicry with only dog stimuli was investigated using an ANOVA, this was not significant. Lastly, an ANCOVA was conducted, using Species and Pupil action, with Attitude as a covariate, on pupil mimicry. The results of this analysis were insignificant for both interaction and main effects. The current study was unable to find evidence of negative experience or attitude influencing pupil mimicry cross-species. Areas for improvement on the study design include a more in-depth analysis of the non- human stimuli prior to data collection and pre-conceived biases towards dog breeds used in the experiment. Additionally, more information on context and severity of negative experiences with dogs would be beneficial to future research.Show less

Pupil mimicry

Negative experience

Dogs

Attitude

Author

Embleton, Rachel

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

Applied cognitive psychology

Supervisors

Kret, M.E.
Jaasma, L.J.
Zijlstra, T.W.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en