What is the bond between human and companion animals? From the child development point of view

Research Project

Project/Area Number	16H06691
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Childhood science (childhood environment science)
Research Institution	The University of Tokyo
Principal Investigator	Wang Mu-Yun 東京大学, 大学院総合文化研究科, 特任研究員 (70781152)
Project Period (FY)	2016-08-26 – 2018-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2018)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,860,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥660,000) Fiscal Year 2017: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
Keywords	prosocial behavior / domestic animals / social evolution / social behavior / interspecific movement / interspecific behaviour / bi-polar interaction / prosocial behaviour / companion animal / child development / Biophilia hypothesis / companion behavior / attention
Outline of Final Research Achievements	We tested the social communication abilities between child and dogs, such as reading social cues (eye sight or hand sign) and the prosocial behavior between different animals (the ability to share resources with others). We found that even infants which do not pass the mirror test (do not yet show self recognition) can still perform the prosocial behavior (share food or toys with the dog instead of occupy the food or toy by themselves) toward the dogs. On the other hand, only dogs which show positive oxytocin loop (star longer time to the child's face) perform the prosocial behavior. This is the first study testing the prosocial behavior between different animal species, and can give us insights to the evolution background of prosocial behavior, which is very important in all the social animal societies.
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	ともに暮らす動物の存在が子供の知覚、認知、言語の発達を促すことは数多くの先行研究から示唆されている。しかしながら、子どもと動物の間のどのようなインタラクションがしているのかはほとんどわかっていない。この研究は異種間において向社会的行動が生じることを示した初めてのもので、伴侶動物としての長い歴史の過程でイヌがこの能力を獲得してきたことを示唆します。これまで社会的相互作用の進化については主に類人猿とヒトを比較することで検討されてきましたが、本研究はこの問題の解明にイヌ科動物の社会行動の比較調査が役立つことを示したものであり、進化学に新たなツールを提供するものと考えます。