60秒科学:Dogs Can't Smell a Liar

Dogs Can't Smell a Liar¹
A study in the journal Behavioural Processes finds that dogs cannot reliably tell if someone is fibbing to them. Karen Hopkin reports

You can teach your dog to lie down. But you can’t teach him to lie, or to know when you’re lying. Because a new report shows that Spot can’t spot deception². The study’s in the journal Behavioural Processes.

We’ve all known pooches who run and hide when their owners shout “let’s go for a ride”—when what they really mean is “we have an appointment with the vet³.” But do the dogs really know that their people are being duplicitous? To find out, Mark Petter, a student in clinical psychology⁴ at Dalhousie University in Canada, decided⁵ to fib to some Fidos.

In his experiment, dogs were shown two covered containers. One held a treat. The other: nothing but disappointment. In half the trials, a helpful trainer stood behind and pointed⁶ to the container holding the treat. In the other half, a deceptive⁷ trainer pointed to the empty container.

The results? The dogs approached the honest trainer a little more often than they did the deceiver. But not enough to conclude that the pups had figured out that one of the guys was pulling their leg. So dogs may be able to sniff⁸ out bombs. But they can’t pick up the smell of mendacity.
 

1 liar   

n.说谎的人

参考例句：

• I know you for a thief and a liar!我算认识你了，一个又偷又骗的家伙！
• She was wrongly labelled a liar.她被错误地扣上说谎者的帽子。

2 deception   

n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计

参考例句：

• He admitted conspiring to obtain property by deception.他承认曾与人合谋骗取财产。
• He was jailed for two years for fraud and deception.他因为诈骗和欺诈入狱服刑两年。

3 vet   

n.兽医，退役军人；vt.检查

参考例句：

• I took my dog to the vet.我把狗带到兽医诊所看病。
• Someone should vet this report before it goes out.这篇报道发表之前应该有人对它进行详查。

4 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

7 deceptive   

adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• His appearance was deceptive.他的外表带有欺骗性。
• The storyline is deceptively simple.故事情节看似简单，其实不然。

8 sniff   

vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视

参考例句：

• The police used dogs to sniff out the criminals in their hiding - place.警察使用警犬查出了罪犯的藏身地点。
• When Munchie meets a dog on the beach, they sniff each other for a while.当麦奇在海滩上碰到另一条狗的时候，他们会彼此嗅一会儿。