failed_experiment.db
← Back to browse

Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology› Genetics› Human-Animal Interaction Studies

Animal cognition — Watching-eye images and dogs' food theft

Submitted 2026-10-22

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › GeneticsType: No effect foundArea: animal cognitionTarget: Watching-eye images and dogs' food theftStage: full study

Hypothesis

If the watching-eye effect in humans reflects a general tendency to avoid risk when observed, dogs — which act cautiously when watched — should also steal food more slowly in front of pictures of eyes.

What failed

Dogs took no longer to steal forbidden food when a picture of eyes was displayed than when a picture of flowers was.

Broken assumption

The watching-eye effect is a general animal response to being observed rather than something specific to humans.

Why

The authors take the null as evidence against the general risk-aversion explanation, leaving a human-specific reputation-management account as the alternative.

From the published paper: Neilands et al. Scientific Reports, 2020. ↗CC BY

Research ideas from this failure

Unvetted lead — read the papers

New hypotheses this failure suggests, each with a crucial experiment, a rival explanation of the original result, and the papers it rests on. Written by AI from paper titles and abstracts found on OpenAlex (and Europe PMC, for life and health sciences).

Related failures

Nothing else logged looks close to this one yet.

Links in published research

Where this experiment's genes are known to matter outside its own research area, and the papers behind those links. Sources: Open Targets Platform and Europe PMC.