Oxytocin controls how dogs read smiling human faces

Oxytocin, a hormone involved in social bonding, influences what dogs see and how they experience the world around them, a new study has found. Normally, dogs focus on the most remarkable aspect of a situation, for example threatening stimuli in scary situations - an important skill for survival. But the new study found that dogs under the influence of oxytocin were more likely to focus on smiling human faces than angry ones. Pictured top left are examples of two images shown to the dogs treated with oxytocin during the experiment. Left is an angry face, and right is a happy face.