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Man's best friend certainly looks ashamed when he's being scolded for chewing up your favorite slippers, but scientists say dogs don't actually experience guilt.
人类最好的朋友因为咬坏了主人最喜欢的拖鞋而挨骂的时候，看起来楚楚可怜，好像很自责的样子，但是科学家说狗狗根本就不会感受到内疚。
If you've ever had a dog, you know the signature canine "guilty look": ears back, head cowered, tail tucked.
如果你养过狗，那你肯定知道狗狗们的“内疚脸”：耳朵朝后，脑袋瑟瑟发抖，尾巴蜷成一团。
Seventy-four percent of dog owners believe their dogs experience guilt, but animal behaviorists say dogs lack the ability to feel shame. They say that guilty look is simply a reaction to you.
74%的狗主人相信他们的狗狗会觉得内疚，但是动物行为学专家称狗狗没有感到愧疚这项功能。他们说这种内疚脸就是摆给你看的。
While there's plenty of evidence that man's best friend experiences primary emotions, such as fear and happiness, there's little evidence that dogs feel secondary emotions like pride, jealousy and guilt.
虽然有很多证据证明汪星人能感受一些基本情绪，比如恐惧和快乐，但是鲜有证据表示狗狗有次级情绪(包括基本情绪的各种变化及混合情绪)比如自豪，嫉妒和愧疚。
Scientist say this is because secondary emotions require self-awareness and a level of cognition that dogs may not have.
科学家说这是因为次级情绪需要有自我意识和一定程度认知能力，而狗狗可能并不具备。
Alexandra Horowitz, a psychology professor and principal investigator at the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab at Columbia University, conducted one of the first studies on dog "guilt" in 2009. She videotaped 14 dogs in a series of trials and observed how they reacted when their owners left the room after instructing them not to eat a treat. While the owner was gone, Horowitz gave some of the dogs the forbidden treat before asking the owners back in. In some cases the owners were told their dog had eaten the treat, but in others, they were told their dog had behaved. However, Horowitz wasn't always honest with them.
心理学教授及哥伦比亚大学Horowitz犬类认知实验室首席研究员Alexandra Horowitz在2009年首次对于狗狗“愧疚感”进行了研究。她拍摄了14条狗狗一系列的实验录像，并观察当主人命令它们不许吃零食，然后离开房间后它们会如何表现。当主人离开后，Horowit给了其中一部分狗狗一点零食。一部分主人被告知狗狗吃掉了这些零食，而其他主人被告知狗狗遵守了规则。而这些信息并不完全符合实际情况。
Horowitz found that the dogs' guilty looks had little to do with whether they'd eaten the treat or not. In fact, dogs that hadn't eaten it but were scolded by misinformed owners tended to exhibit the most elements of the "guilty look."
Horowitz发现，狗狗的内疚脸与它们是否偷吃零食并无太多关联。事实上，虽然没有偷吃零食，但是因为主人被提供虚假信息而受到冤枉的狗狗还是会展现出一副“内疚脸”。
Horowitz says this shows that the dogs' body language is actually a response to their owner’s behavior — not an experience of shame for a misdeed.
Horowitz说这证明狗狗的肢体语言其实只是对于主人行为的一种反馈——并非因为犯错而感到内疚。
"The 'guilty look' would be better called the 'submissive look,' as in, 'Don’t punish me for whatever it is you think I did,'" Horowitz wrote in The Washington Post.
Horowitz写道：“与其叫‘内疚脸’还不如叫‘顺从脸’比较合适，这幅表情的意思就是‘不管你觉得我干了什么，请不要惩罚我’。”
Why then, do dogs look so ashamed when we scold them?
那么为何狗狗遭到责备的时候看起来这么愧疚呢？
That look of guilt is likely the result of a learned association. When you scold your dog for chewing a pair of slippers or leaving a mess on the carpet, he quickly learns that if he lowers his head and tucks his tail, the undesirable response — raised voice and angry expression — is more likely to cease.
那副内疚的表情很可能是学习的成果。当你责备狗狗咬坏一双拖鞋或者在地毯上拉稀，它很快就明白如果它低下头、蜷起尾巴，那些不良的反应——大嗓门和愤怒的表现最有可能会消失。
Almost 60 percent of dog owners claim that their dogs' guilty behavior leads them to scold their dog less, according to a study by Universities Federation for Animal Welfare.
根据高等学校动物福利联盟的一项研究显示，近60%的狗主人说狗狗的愧疚表现让他们不忍心继续责备。
Still, scientific findings haven't deterred the popularity of websites like DogShaming.com where dog owners submit photos of their disorderly dogs with humorous confessions.
但是，科学研究还是无法阻止人们在DogShaming(dogshaming.com)这种网站上给犯了错的狗狗配上搞笑的自首语。
"I don't think dogs actually feel shame," Pascale Lemire, creator of the website, told The Associated Press. "I think they know how to placate us with this sad puppy-dog look that makes us think they're ashamed of what they've done.
网站创始人Pascale Lemire告诉记者：“我并不觉得狗狗真的会觉得内疚。我认为它们只是用‘小狗脸’来让我们觉得它们对自己所做的事情感到内疚，以此来平息我们的怒火。”
"My guess is that their thinking is: 'Oh man, my owner is super mad about something, but I don't know what, but he seems to calm down when I give him the sad face, so let's try that again.'"
“我猜它们的想法是：‘哎呀，我的主人因为什么事情超级生气，虽然我不知道是什么事情，但是如果我摆出一副难过的样子他好像就会冷静一点，所以我再做一次这个表情好啦。’”
