Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbomb here with a classic episode from our archives.
Speaker 1: In this one, we answer what is perhaps the most
Speaker 1: important question in these our social media times? Are dogs
Speaker 1: actually embarrassed when we put them in those adorable costumes?
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Vogelbomb, and I suspect that
Speaker 1: some of you love dogs, some of you might even
Speaker 1: like dressing them up for warmth or fun. Halloween costumes,
Speaker 1: holiday outfits, birthday dresses, boots, scarves, wigs, painted nails, more boots.
Speaker 1: Some of these outfits are decidedly sillier than anything their
Speaker 1: owners would wear, which leads us to the question of
Speaker 1: the day. Do dogs get embarrassed when we dress them up?
Speaker 1: In humans, embarrassment is an emotion, just like love, guilt, sadness, fear,
Speaker 1: or happiness. When someone we know dies, we feel sorrow.
Speaker 1: When people make fun of us, we feel humiliated or embarrassed.
Speaker 1: When something good happens, we feel happiness. Humans have six
Speaker 1: basic emotions love, joy, surprise, anger, sadness, and fear. Some
Speaker 1: researchers argue that we display only four basics, happy, sad,
Speaker 1: a combo of afraid and surprised, and a combo of
Speaker 1: angry and disgusted, but that's a topic for another day.
Speaker 1: Whichever set you go by, these primary emotions then branch
Speaker 1: out to secondary emotions such as pride, relief, and optimism.
Speaker 1: Tertiary emotions include excitement, loneliness, and embarrassment. Yet emotions are fleeting,
Speaker 1: They last for only a brief time. We don't stay
Speaker 1: embarrassed forever, or at the very least, we shouldn't. In humans,
Speaker 1: Embarrassment is a so called self conscious emotion, just like guilt.
Speaker 1: We get embarrassed when we trip or fall, when we
Speaker 1: burp at the dinner table, or spill a cup of
Speaker 1: coffee on a nice white shirt as a crowd of
Speaker 1: people look on. But do dogs feel the same emotions
Speaker 1: that we do. It's a good question, and one that
Speaker 1: scientists have been welling over for you years. If you're
Speaker 1: a dog owner, there's no question that dogs become emotional.
Speaker 1: They wag their tail when they're happy, they look guilty,
Speaker 1: ears back head down when they pee on the rug
Speaker 1: or chew a book to shreds. We also know that
Speaker 1: they can get jealous of a new addition to the house,
Speaker 1: like a baby or another dog, or of the cat
Speaker 1: who claims their favorite person's lap. Still, many scientists have
Speaker 1: yet to come to grips with the idea that dogs
Speaker 1: experience emotions like humans. While some argue that dogs do
Speaker 1: feel a range of emotions, guilt may not be one
Speaker 1: of them. Instead, dogs may simply be reacting to their
Speaker 1: owner's body language. In the opinion of some, dogs experience
Speaker 1: only instant reaction emotions fear, joy sadness, and anger, which
Speaker 1: brings us back to whether dogs get embarrassed. Their scale
Speaker 1: is certainly different if they do, given that they don't
Speaker 1: have our hang ups and thus aren't embarrassed by things
Speaker 1: that would mortify most humans, like getting caught scratching or
Speaker 1: licking decidedly in delicate itches in public. We spoke via
Speaker 1: email with doctor Jessica Pierce, a bioethicist who has written
Speaker 1: extensively on the psychology of dogs and cats. She said,
Speaker 1: as far as I know, there's been no systematic research
Speaker 1: into whether or not dogs feel embarrassment, but I would
Speaker 1: guess that they do. That said, when we dress them
Speaker 1: up as lobsters or Donald Trump for Halloween and they
Speaker 1: put their ears back and tuck their tails down, it
Speaker 1: may not be embarrassment that they're feeling. They might simply
Speaker 1: find the costumes uncomfortable or unfamiliar, and they might be
Speaker 1: upset by or reacting to the fact that all the
Speaker 1: people around them are laughing and acting excited. If she
Speaker 1: had to bet on it, Pierce thinks dogs probably experienced
Speaker 1: the same basic emotions as humans. She said, dogs most
Speaker 1: certainly experience what are called the primary emotions, such as anger, fear, sadness,
Speaker 1: and joy. They also likely experience a whole range of
Speaker 1: secondary emotions, including empathy, guilt, and embarrassment. As for which
Speaker 1: emotions dogs lack, I wouldn't feel confident putting anything on
Speaker 1: that list. My guess is that the more closely scientists
Speaker 1: study the emotional experiences and capacities of dogs, the more
Speaker 1: they will find. So should you dress your dog up
Speaker 1: to put up Bluntly, if you would feel humiliated dressed
Speaker 1: up as a lobster or Donald Trump, then chances are
Speaker 1: your dog will too, Pierce said, when people ask me
Speaker 1: whether it's mean to dress our dogs up in costumes
Speaker 1: or fancy sweaters, my answer is ask your dog. If
Speaker 1: your dog seems uncomfortable, then take the costume off. After
Speaker 1: quickly taking that cute photograph to posts on social media.
Speaker 1: If your dog doesn't seem to care, or perhaps even
Speaker 1: seems to like being fancied up, then it's fine. Today's
Speaker 1: episode is based on the article do dogs get embarrassed
Speaker 1: When We Dress them up? On how stuffworks dot Com?
Speaker 1: Written by John Partano. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com, and it's produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler Klang. But for more podcasts from my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows. H