摘要：SummaryIt is increasingly assumed that domestication has equipped dogs with unique socio-cognitive skills, which raises the possibility of intriguing parallels between the social motivational systems of the two species. However, the positive incentive value of human facial stimuli is a largely unexplored area. Here, we investigated whether the owner's face serves as a social reinforcer. In a two-way choice task N = 39 dogs were presented with a short video about their owners' head showing the face (facing owner [FO]) vs. the back of the head (non-facing owner). Despite both locations containing equal food reward, dogs approached the container associated with FO more frequently (p < .001), and this was not affected by side, trial order, and choice latency. However, the considerable inter-individual differences in dogs' task performance suggest that the added social component required special social skills which need to be further explored.Graphical abstractDisplay OmittedHighlights•Dogs prefer to approach the food next to the facing owner in a two-way choice task•The variation among dogs is probably due to individual differences in sociability•Dogs' tendency to approach the facing owner may stem from their internal motivation•Alternatively, dogs may have associated the owner's face with positive reinforcementBiological sciences; Neuroscience; Behavioral neuroscience
