Is Behavior “Contagious”?
Anyone who has been around dogs has encountered the following: The dog down the street begins to bark at who knows what, and within seconds, every other dog within hearing is barking his head off as well; two dogs begin to play chase at the local dog park and soon half a dozen dogs are drawn into the game; one of your dogs turns his nose up at the food dish and walks away, but comes back and eats like he is starving when your other dog starts to eat.
This phenomenon of one animal doing something that draws others into doing the same behavior is called social facilitation and is seen mainly in highly social animals. Some behaviorists have referred to it as social contagion in animals. It’s been seen in the feeding behavior of chickens, grooming behavior of rhesus monkeys and athletic performances in people, to give just a few examples.
Social facilitation probably has several functions. It may allow animals to take advantages of resources that are scattered in patches, such as seeds on the ground. One chicken discovers them and starts to feed, and it draws the flock to feed as well. It probably also leads to coordination of cooperative activities such as hunting or protecting the group against intruders. The “bark fests” that dogs get into could have evolved in this way to intimidate and chase off intruders. The social howling of wolf packs may alert other packs to their presence in the area and advertize their possession of a territory.
A particularly dangerous situation where social facilitation can occur is in aggressive or predatory attacks on people or other animals. Some of the most savage attacks by dogs have involved groups of dogs. In a few cases it has been shown that the dogs involved in the attacks were not particularly aggressive until aroused by the presence of other dogs. The aggression seems to be contagious – such as the hysteria experienced by groups of fearful people. The dogs do things in groups that they wouldn’t do by themselves. The possibility of such socially facilitated aggression provides a good reason not to let dogs roam freely in groups.
Not all dog behavior is socially facilitated. Fears of thunderstorms and other loud noises and separation anxiety do not seem to be spread from one dog to another. Furthermore, not all dogs engage in socially facilitated barking, feeding, play or aggression. We don’t know what factors predispose dogs to engage in socially facilitated behavior.
Keep in mind that social facilitation is different from imitation learning. With the latter a completely new and novel behavior is being learned; not so with the former.
5 Responses to “Is Behavior “Contagious”?”
Marlo Hiltz
Hi Dr. Hetts.
I walk a dog, Maxi whose owner works from home. Maxi is always reluctant to come with me when I pick her up. She doesn’t want to leave the house when her owner is home. Normally the dogs I walk are flinging themselves out the door. I’ve tried high value treats to lure her out, shown her her favourite ball, acted really excited but she doesn’t budge. The owner will usually have to come out with us. She loves her walks and her dog friends. Once she is in the car she is very happy.
She has a best friend named Stella that I normally pick up after already getting Maxi. Yesterday I decided to get Stella first and bring her to the door. It worked like a charm. Maxi came to the door and happily followed Stella out to the car.
I wanted to blog about it but before I did I wanted to find out if that is truly an example of ‘social facilitation’.
Thank you!
(I love all your work)
Marlo Hiltz CPDT-KA
Suz and Dan
Hi Shirley – you know, it's been many years since Thomas' book came out, and I haven't read it or looked at again in all that intervening time. So I don't feel "up to speed" enough right now to have a whole lot to say. I do remember that I was not impressed at the time with the book and did not give it a favorable review. If you can give a few specific examples of her observations you are curious about perhaps I can offer a more concrete response.
Suzanne
Shirley
You mention E.M. Thomas. What if any of her observations do you feel are appropriate to use for dog training and socilization puroposes?
Suz and Dan
While dog parks certainly have their own issues, I don't consider them to be quite the same thing as a group of dogs running unrestrained, off leash through a neighborhood. But even in dog parks, depending on the complexity of the environment and the density of the dogs, socially facilitated aggression should be something people should be aware of. That's one good reason why owners should be closely monitoring their dogs' behaviors while they are there, rather than sort of 'tuning out".
From the cases I am familiar with, in which loose dogs engaged in a fatal attack, the dogs had a history of getting out and/or running loose at least once, and sometimes many times previously. But that may not be true in all cases.
Regarding Dr. Grandin's opinion – I know of no data to support that contention and it reminds me of some of Elizabeth Marshall Thomas's stuff from many years ago. I have the greatest respect for Dr. Grandin and her large animal work, but dogs are not her primary area of expertise so I'm pretty sure she has no first hand knowledge and to my knowledge there are no data to support her statement.
Suzanne
Kerri
The comment about not letting dogs roam freely in groups makes me wonder what your opinion is on off-leash dog parks and Temple Grandin's argument about regularly free roaming dogs having better social skills. Do the dogs that are involved with these socially facilitated attacks have the experience of free roaming before the attacks occur, or is that usually their first time free-roaming?