Commentary: Oxytocin-gaze positive loop and the coevolution of human-dog bonds

• Published in: Frontiers in neuroscience 2016-04, Vol.10, p.155-155
• Main Authors: Kekecs, Zoltan, Szollosi, Aba, Palfi, Bence, Szaszi, Barnabas, Kovacs, Krisztina J, Dienes, Zoltan, Aczel, Balazs
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal populations; Bayesian analysis; Canidae; Coevolution; Dogs; Experiments; Females; Gender differences; hand-reared wolves; human-dog co-evolution; Hypotheses; Hypothesis testing; Males; Neurosciences; Oxytocin; Psychology; Science; Sex differences; Socialization; Women
• ISSN: 1662-4548; 1662-453X; 1662-453X
• DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2016.00155

The sex effect on oxytocin change (female owner vs. male owner, χ2 = 3.69, df = 1, p = 0.054, proportion of pairs supporting the alternative hypothesis = 0.69) is in fact larger than the effect of the species (dog owners vs. wolf owners, χ2 = 0.19, df = 1, p = 0.662, proportion of pairs supporting the alternative hypothesis = 0.54). [...]sex differences provide an alternative explanation for the finding that oxytocin increase was significantly higher in the owners of LG dogs compared to wolves. Additionally, there was a significant difference in the baseline oxytocin values of the dog and wolf owners (χ2 = 4.67, df = 1, p = 0.031). [...]the apparent difference between dogs and wolf in inducing an oxytocin response in humans may be simply due to a ceiling effect. [...]results are hard to interpret because of the extremely low statistical power. A Bayes factor on the r = 0 for wolves indicates that due to the low sample size, the data are insensitive and do not provide evidence for the null hypothesis [BH(0, Fisher's z(0.60)) = 0.51; see (Dienes, 2014)], and that at least 26 wolves would be required for a sensitive test [BH(0, Fisher's z(0.60)) = 0.33] to provide evidence against correlation between oxytocin change in owners and duration of animal-to-owner gaze.