Canine Expert Explains the Genius Behind the Ability of Domesticated Dogs to Garner Affection From Humans

During the 2018 Aspen Ideas Festival, the very affable Brian Hare, who is canine expert and Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University, spoke with The Atlantic about what he sees as the genius of domesticated dogs. He specifically shared what he sees as their remarkable genius in garnering affection from humans that’s usually reserved for infants, while still retaining their own personalities.

Dogs have different types of intelligence. …that means if you’re a really great communicator as a dog it doesn’t mean that you have amazing working memory that you rely on. If you’re a dog that really is incredibly skilled at using inferential reasoning to solve problems, it doesn’t mean that you’re a dog that necessarily has a lot of empathy relative to other dogs. They vary independently from one another and….Those are the ingredients for all the different recipes of personality that then we get to enjoy for all those individual dogs.