Alexandra Horowitz of Barnard College’s psychology department set up an experiment in which owners were asked to leave the room after ordering their dog not to eat a tasty treat.

During the master's absence, the treat was either removed or given to the dog to eat. In some of the tests, the owner was misinformed and told his pet had disobeyed when the treat had actually been removed.

Horowitz found that the “guilty look” of dipping the head and slinking away occurred whether or not they had actually disobeyed, and was entirely due to the scolding.

Some dogs who had not eaten the treat actually looked “more guilty” than the animals that disobeyed, Horowitz writes in the journal Behavioral Processes.

She concludes that dogs have learned to act in a certain way to respond to their owners’ behavior and not from any sense of remorse.

Photo: Pawel Gaul - iStockphoto