Tail chasers. Ball fetchers. Security guards. We tend to value dogs for their loyalty and charm, not for their brains. Now new research from evolutionary anthropologist Brian Hare of Duke University shows that dogs may be smarter than we give them credit for; in some cases, they may even outsmart our primate relatives. Hare, who directs Duke’s Hominoid Psychology Research Group and the Duke Canine Cognition Center, studies the relationship between social behavior and cognition in animals. He finds that chimpanzees and bonobos (their close cousins, and ours) are not the only animals whose brains offer clues to human evolution. The success of man’s best friend may shed light on the success of man, Hare believes: Well before we domesticated dogs, we became domesticated ourselves.
Dogs are so familiar to us, yet you say that we underestimate their intelligence. How so?
