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TheOtherDave comments on Guilt: Another Gift Nobody Wants - Less Wrong
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I find evolutionary-psychological reasoning always a bit suspect because it seems a bit too good to explain just about anything. Having said that -- sometimes dogs seem to have a sense of guilt -- does that imply they have a kind of morality too(*)? Or is it just some kind of 'act' due to co-evolution with humans?
(*) De Waal in Primates and Philosophers argues that some animals have a certain degree of morality (Robert Wright slightly disagrees with De Waal, in the same book).
My unofficial conclusion after a few years of paying attention to my dog in this space is that mostly what she's doing is giving me the signals that work.
The "I'm sorry, please forgive me, see: I'm lovable!" face/dance is really quite effective at defusing my irritation, especially given that she can often pick up on me being irritated before I quite notice it myself.