Anjing yang Punya Rasa Keadilan

Ketika diperlakukan tidak adil, hewan pun bisa protes. Dalam eksperimen yang dilakukan seorang peneliti dari University of Viena, Austria, anjing yang sudah dilatih untuk melakukan sebuah atraksi (misalnya, mengambil ranting yang dilempar) akan ‘ngambek’ ketika ia tidak diberi hadiah, padahal ia melihat anjing lain yang melakukan atraksi sama diberi hadiah.

Menariknya, hadiahnya sendiri tidak perlu sama-sama adil. Si anjing tidak ngambek ketika temannya diberi daging sementara ia mendapat roti; asalkan diberi sesuatu, ia sudah cukup senang dan merasa diperlakukan adil.

clipped from www.newsweek.com No fair! What parent hasn’t heard that from a child who thinks another youngster got more of something? Well, it turns out dogs can react the same way. Ask them to do a trick and they’ll give it a try. For a reward, sausage say, they’ll happily keep at it. But if one dog gets no reward, and then sees another get sausage for doing the same trick, just try to get the first one to do it again. Indeed, he may even turn away and refuse to look at you. “Animals react to inequity,” said Friederike Range of the University of Vienna, Austria, who led a team of researchers testing animals at the school’s Clever Dog Lab. “To avoid stress, we should try to avoid treating them differently.” Similar responses have been seen in monkeys. One thing that did surprise the researchers was that — unlike primates — the dogs didn’t seem to care whether the reward was sausage or bread. And the dogs never rejected the food, something that primates had done when they thought the reward was unfair.