Learn about dog jealousy; physical activity at work vs. at play; and why only certain parts of us get pruney when wet. Dogs act jealous of their owner's attention to other dogs even when they can't see the dog by Steffie Drucker Dogs act jealously even when they don’t see their rival. (2021). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-04/afps-daj040821.php Bastos, A. P. M., Neilands, P. D., Hassall, R. S., Lim, B. C., & Taylor, A. H. (2021). Dogs Mentally Represent Jealousy-Inducing Social Interactions. Psychological Science, 095679762097914. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620979149 Coren, S. (2017, January 19). Do Dogs Feel Jealousy or Envy? American Kennel Club; American Kennel Club. https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/lifestyle/do-dogs-feel-jealousy-or-envy/ Physical activity for leisure is good for your health, but physical activity on the job is not by Kelsey Donk Leisure physical activity is linked with health benefits but work activity is not. (2021). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-04/esoc-lpa040721.php Holtermann, A., Schnohr, P., Nordestgaard, B. G., & Marott, J. L. (2021). The physical activity paradox in cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality: the contemporary Copenhagen General Population Study with 104 046 adults. European Heart Journal, 42(15), 1499–1511. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab087 Why do our fingers get pruney in water but not our mouths? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Ethan in Ithaca) Summers, B. (2013). Science gets a grip on wrinkly fingers. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.2013.12175 Yong, E. (2011). Pruney fingers grip better. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/news.2011.388 Water-induced finger wrinkles improve handling of wet objects | Biology Letters. (2013). Biology Letters. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsbl.2012.0999 Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer — for free!
Learn about dog jealousy; physical activity at work vs. at play; and why only certain parts of us get pruney when wet.
Dogs act jealous of their owner's attention to other dogs even when they can't see the dog by Steffie Drucker
Physical activity for leisure is good for your health, but physical activity on the job is not by Kelsey Donk
Why do our fingers get pruney in water but not our mouths? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Ethan in Ithaca)
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer — for free!
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/is-exercise-for-work-as-good-as-exercise-for-play
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about about the adorable science showing that dogs really do get jealous; and how physical activity affects you differently at work than it does when you’re at play. We’ll also answer a listener question about why only certain parts of our body get pruney in water.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Dog owners have long said their pooch pals get pouty if they show affection to another dog. Now scientists have confirmed they’re right! And you won’t believe HOW JEALOUS dogs can get.
Researchers at the University of Auckland recruited 18 human-canine pairs to put their bond to the test. The dog owners sat in a room next to either a realistic-looking stuffed dog or a fleece-covered cylinder. They wore blacked out goggles and noise-canceling headphones so they wouldn’t know which object they were interacting with. Their canine companions were leashed to a doorframe across the room. To measure how hard the dogs pulled in their attempts to reach their owner, the researchers attached a force gauge to the dog’s leash.
In the first experiment, scientists had the humans pet and praise the fleece-covered cylinder in full view of their dog. In a second experiment, researchers showed the dog their owner sitting next to the realistic looking dog. Then, they slid a barrier in front of the owners so the dogs couldn’t see what was happening, then had the owners pet and praise the object next to them. (Unbeknownst to them, they were actually petting a fleece-covered shelf. That was to make sure the objects felt the same in both conditions.) The team ran the experiment one more time with the stuffed dog in plain view of the real dogs to confirm that they weren’t just curious about what was behind the barrier. After the test, almost all the dogs sniffed the stuffed animal, which suggests that they thought it was real.
When they analyzed the data, the researchers found that the dogs pulled at their leashes twice as hard when their owner petted the fake dog as they did with the fleece-covered cylinder.
That suggests that dogs experience jealousy a lot like we humans do. And that’s a big deal, because jealousy requires self-awareness. Think about it: Little kids get jealous when they realize their sibling is getting more of mom’s attention than they are. We weren’t sure dogs had the capacity for comparison. But here, their jealous behavior only emerged when their owner engaged with the stuffed dog, not the obviously fake object. And they didn’t react to just seeing the fake dog in the room; it was specifically in response to their owner interacting with it.
And the test with the barrier, where the real dog couldn’t even see their rival being fussed over? That showed that they got jealous simply from imagining the situation.
So our canine companions’ emotional inner lives are more complex than we thought! Just remember that the next time you stop to pet a rival pooch.
The World Health Organization says adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity every week. So if you have a job that requires physical activity, you’re killing two birds with one stone, right? Not quite. New research suggests that while physical activity for leisure is good for your health, physical activity on the job is not. And it might be up to employers to bridge that gap.
That news comes from a study of more than 100,000 Danish men and women who engaged in varying levels of physical activity. Researchers gathered lots of information about the participants and then followed them over 10 years to see who died and how many people suffered a stroke, heart attack, or other heart disease.
It turned out that people who had moderate, high, or very high levels of leisure time physical activity reduced their risk of death by up to 41 percent. Those same people also reduced their risk of heart problems by up to 25 percent.
But the same was not true for people who got their physical activity through work. Compared to sedentary desk jobs, high and very high physical activity at work was associated with an up to 27 percent increased risk of death. High physical activity at work was also associated with a jump in heart issues.
In the past, it’s been hard to pin down a clear association between physical activity at work and increased mortality, since the risks could also be due to low socioeconomic status or unhealthy habits. But in this study, researchers corrected for a list of 20 potential health, lifestyle, and socioeconomic factors. The findings held firm.
This is a problem for a few reasons, not least of which is that work is the main place where adults get their physical activity. And most physical activity guidelines don’t differentiate between activity at work and leisure activity. So lots of adults might think that their active job is good for their health. In fact, the opposite might be true.
This study didn’t look into why physical activity on the job might be associated with higher risk of mortality. But the researchers think it’s possible that the kind of activity we do for fun might have a different impact on our heart rate and blood pressure than strenuous labor. They hope more studies will show employers how they can make a healthier work environment — possibly including more breaks and varied activities. Hopefully, they can make the workplace healthier for everyone.
We got a listener question from Ethan in Ithaca, who writes, “Our fingers and skin get pruney if we spend too much time in the water, but what's so different about the skin inside our cheeks and mouth that they can spend all day, every day immersed in spit and not get pruney?” Tricky question, Ethan. I like it.
I’m gonna quibble with you on one point, though: while your fingers and toes definitely get pruney in the pool or the bathtub, the rest of your skin doesn’t. I mean, nobody at a pool party ever complains about a wrinkly belly button, right? And that’s the key to your answer. Your hands and feet are the only things to prune in water, and they don’t do it because they’re waterlogged — they do it because of your autonomic nervous system.
Scientists have actually known since the 1930s that this underwater wrinkling is controlled by the autonomic nervous system — that is, it's involuntary, caused by blood vessels beneath the skin constricting. It doesn't even happen to people who have nerve damage in their fingers. Still, they didn’t know why it happens until about 10 years ago, when evolutionary neurobiologist Mark Changizi [chan-GEEZ-ee] and his team realized that the channels that form in pruney fingers look a little bit like rain treads on tires — and maybe, just like rain treads, they improve grip in wet conditions. So in 2013, they put this hypothesis to the test. The researchers gathered a bunch of volunteers and had half of them soak their fingers in water. Next, they had everyone attempt to pick up both wet and dry marbles. They found that pruney fingers were better at picking up wet objects, but not at picking up dry ones.
And that is why your hands and feet prune in water but the rest of your skin doesn’t — including the moist skin in your mouth and mucus membranes. Your nervous system knows to prune where it counts and not where it doesn’t. Thanks for your question, Ethan! If you have a question, send us an email or a voice recording to curiosity at discovery dot com, or leave us a voicemail at 312-596-5208.
CODY: Before we recap what we learned today, here’s a sneak peek at what you’ll hear next week on Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Next week, you’ll learn about why swimming really does make you hungrier than other forms of exercise;
The strange, natural relationship between the Sahara Desert and the Amazon Rainforest;
How researchers built the first entanglement-based quantum network;
An ant that literally shrinks its own brain to try to become queen;
And more! Okay, so now, let’s recap what we learned today.
[ad lib optional]
ASHLEY: Today’s writers were Steffie Drucker and Kelsey Donk.
CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer, who was also a writer on today’s episode]
ASHLEY: Our producer and audio editor is Cody Gough.
CODY: Pet your dog! And say “WHO’S A GOOD BOY?” And then don’t pet anyone else’s dog, OR ELSE. This coming Monday is Memorial Day here in the US, so have a safe weekend if you’re traveling. As for this podcast, Ashley and I can’t stop, won’t stop. So join us again Monday to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!