为什么狗狗认为你很傻？(上)

This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Karen Hopkin.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是凯伦·霍普金。

Ever get the feeling that your cat is judging you?

总感觉猫猫在评判你?

Well, you’re in for a surprise. Because it’s actually your pooch who might be viewing you with a critical eye.

嗯，你会大吃一惊的。因为实际上用评判目光看你的是狗狗。

That’s according to a study that shows that dogs can assess human aptitude and will look toward people who seem to know what they’re doing.

这是根据一项研究得出的结论，该研究表明狗狗可以评估人类的做事天赋，并会关注那些似乎知道它们在做什么的人类。

The work appears in the journal Behavioral Processes.

这项研究发表在《行为过程》期刊上。

Our aim was to test whether dogs are sensitive to humans’ competence levels. And whether they evaluate humans on this trait.

我们的目的是测试狗是否对人类的做事能力敏感。以及它们是否会用这个特性来评估人类。

Hitomi Chijiiwa is an assistant professor at Osaka University.

千千岩眸是大阪大学的助理教授。

If critiquing people’s proficiency seems an odd job for a pup, it may not be all that far fetched.

对人类做某件事的熟练程度加以评判，似乎是小狗狗的反常行为，但其实这种说法也并非那么靠不住。

Canines have spent more than 10,000 years by our sides.

毕竟犬科动物已经陪伴了我们一万多年。

So Dogs are highly sensitive to human behavior.

狗对人类行为高度敏感。

And they pay particular attention to things like how cooperative we are.

他们特别关注与我们的合作程度。

For example, our previous study showed that dogs avoid people who refuse to help their owner.

例如，我们之前的研究表明，狗会避开那些拒绝帮助主人的人。

So Chijiiwa and her colleagues got to wondering whether dogs might also rate us in terms of our skillfulness.

千千岩眸和同事们想知道，狗是否也会根据我们的技能给我们打分。

Particularly if those skills might come in handy for our four-footed little friends.

特别是如果这些技能可能对我们的四脚兽朋友们派上用场的时候。

So they set up a simple experiment.

所以她们做了一个简单的实验。

We showed 60 dogs two persons manipulating transparent containers. One person is competent.

我们向60只狗展示两个人拧开透明容器的过程。其中一人能拧开。

That person was able to pop open the top after just a couple of twists.

那个人只拧了几下就把盖子打开了。

Whereas the other person is incompetent and they failed at this task.

而另一个人就不行，无法完成这个任务。

That person tried to open the lid, then gave up.

那个人试图打开盖子，然后放弃了。