Good dog: Aspects of humans' causal attributions for a companion animal's social behavior

Lay theories or assumptions about nonhuman animal mentality undoubtedly inf luence relations between people and companion animals. In two experiments r espondents gave their impressions of the mental and motivational bases of c ompanion animal social behavior through measures of causal attribution. Whe n gauged against the matched actions of a boy, as in the first experiment, respondents attributed a. dog's playing (good behavior) to internal, dispos itional factors but a dog's biting (bad behavior) to external, situational factors. A second experiment that focused on a dog's bite revealed clear at tributional process on the part of observers. Higher ratings of a dog as th e cause of a victim's distress predicted higher ratings of a dog's guilt. H igher ratings that a dog had an excuse predicted stronger recommendations f or forgiveness. Individual differences in seeing the actor as a "good dog" systematically predicted judgments of severity of the outcome and recommend ations for punishment. Discussion of these attributional findings referred to tolerance for companion animal misbehavior and relinquishment decisions. This article illustrates the utility of causal attribution as a tool for t he study of popular conceptions of nonhuman animal mind and behavior.