I do not understand but I care: The prosocial dog

Prosocial behaviour benefits another individual and occurs voluntarily. It may have a cognitive and a motivational component. The actor who benefits a recipient – for example by solving her/his problem (1) must recognize the recipient’s goal and understand how to fulfil it and (2) has to be motivated to support the recipient. In the current paper I will review recent studies on prosocial behavior in dogs and I will compare them to studies with primates. I will address the cognitive and motivational skills required for the actor in order to support the recipient. I conclude that dogs and also chimpanzees display a number of prosocial behaviours, but there are remarkable differences. In contrast to humans, which have an outstanding biological predisposition to benefit others, dogs and chimpanzees only do so under certain conditions.