Deborah Custance and Jennifer Mayer of Goldsmiths College, London, set out to see if dogs could detect the emotional state of humans.

伦敦金史密斯大学的黛博拉·科斯坦斯与詹妮弗·梅耶正在着手研究狗，看它们能否察觉人类的情绪状态。

To do this, Dr Custance and Ms Mayer conducted an experiment to study the response of dogs when a nearby human suddenly began to cry.

为了研究这个问题，科斯坦斯博士与梅耶女士进行了一项试验, 他们将狗安排在一个人身边，观察狗在此人突然开始哭泣时的反应。

But although the results are clear enough, Dr Custance argues that more work needs to be done to be sure that such behaviour is true empathy.

科斯坦斯博士说，尽管结论已经十分明确，我们仍需要更多做工来确定它们的行为是否真的因为它们能体会人类的感受。

Dr Custance and Ms Mayer suspected that if exposure to crying led dogs to feel distress, then regardless of who was crying, the dog would go to their master to seek comfort.

科斯坦斯博士与梅耶女士猜想如果狗看到人类哭泣会感到悲伤的话，无论是其主人还是陌生人，狗都会去主人那里寻求安慰。