新奇事件簿 狗也有嫉妒心

Dog lovers have known since time began that pets get jealous, but now a new study has shown that it is true. A professor from the University of California conducted research into what makes dogs jealous. Dr Christine Harris first decided to investigate canine jealousy after she noticed strange behaviour among her parents' three border collies. She noticed that when she stroked two of the pooches at the same time, they became aggressive towards each other. Both dogs tried to knock her hand away from the other so they could receive maximum attention. She said: "To me, that really fit with the core motivation of jealousy….I was petting them with both my hands, not just one. They wanted exclusive attention. That got me to thinking about jealousy in dogs."

爱狗人士早就知道狗有嫉妒心，而且现在一项新研究证实了这一观点。来自加利福尼亚大学的一名教授研究了引起狗的嫉妒心产生的因素。克丽丝汀博士在注意到自己父母的三只博得牧羊犬的奇怪行为之后，决定对狗的嫉妒心进行研究。她注意到，当她抚摸两只狗的时候，三只博得牧羊犬开始变得有攻击性。两只狗都想把我的手从另一只狗身上挤下来，从而让自己能够受到最大程度的关注。她说，就我所知，这明显很符合嫉妒心的核心动机。我在用两只手抚摸它们，而不是一只手。它们需要专一的关注。这一行为让我想到了狗的嫉妒心。

Professor Harris adapted a jealousy test commonly used on young children. Her research team conducted tests on 36 different dogs in their homes and videoed their reactions. The dogs' owner had to read a short passage from a book while petting a toy dog that wagged its tail and a Halloween lantern. Harris wanted to see how the dogs reacted to their owner petting the toy dog, as well as looking at if they had any reaction to the petting of the lantern. She noticed that the dogs were twice as likely to be jealous of the toy dog. A third of the dogs tried to muscle in between the toy and its owner. Professor Harris thinks it is important to understand jealousy more. She said: "Jealousy is the third-leading cause of non-accidental homicide across cultures."

哈里斯教授采用了一项嫉妒心实验，这一实验经常用在小孩身上。她的研究小组对36只不同的小狗做了实验，小狗在自己家中的反应都被摄像机录下来了。狗的主人需要一边读书上的一篇短文，一边抚摸摇着尾巴的玩具狗和万圣节灯笼。哈里斯想知道，当主人抚摸玩具狗或者灯笼的时候，其他狗的反应。她注意到，其他狗对玩具狗基本上都非常嫉妒。三分之一的狗想挤进玩具狗和狗主人之间。哈里斯教授认为，更加深入地了解嫉妒心是很重要的。她说，嫉妒心是跨文化中非偶然性自杀的第三个主要原因。