Good dog, bad wolf: Debunking evolutionary preparedness to fear wolves

Abstract

The return of wolves to historical ranges often causes strong opposition, contrasting with widespread affection for domestic dogs. Evolutionary accounts suggest this discrepancy stems from deeply ingrained affective responses that predispose humans to fear wolves while fostering positive attachment to dogs. Using neuroimaging and self-report data from 42 participants, we investigated how defensive neural circuits linked to implicit threat detection are related to explicit threat evaluations of the two species. During functional MRI, participants viewed images of wolves, dogs, and snakes - the latter chosen for their strong engagement of predisposed threat-related responses - displaying either aggressive or non-aggressive behaviours. As predicted, aggressive displays of all species elicited stronger neural responses in threat-related brain areas. Snakes elicited stronger subcortical threat responses than wolves or dogs, while neural responses to wolves and dogs were largely indistinguishable when comparing aggressive displays. However, explicit threat evaluations strongly differed: wolves were perceived and rated as significantly more threatening than dogs, especially when the species exhibited aggressive displays. Together, these findings challenge accounts that humans are predisposed for negative responses to wolves, suggesting instead that our attitudes towards the species are shaped primarily by deliberate-evaluative processes rather than by implicit-automatic threat responses. This underscores the role of experience, knowledge, stereotypes, and socio-cultural mechanisms in shaping public perceptions of human-wildlife conflicts and conservation efforts. These results provide new insights into the cognitive and affective foundations of human-animal relationships, informing efforts to improve human-wildlife coexistence. Significance statementWhy are wolves feared while dogs are loved? One common explanation is that humans are evolutionarily predisposed to fear wolves as dangerous predators, while dogs, due to domestication, occupy a special niche in human lives. By comparing neural and behavioural responses to wolves, dogs and snakes, we show that wolves do not evoke stronger threat-related brain responses than dogs, despite being judged as the greater threat. However, wolves and dogs alike engage cortical systems associated with perception and evaluation, suggesting that cultural narratives and explicit reasoning, rather than hardwired automatic fear, underlie wolf aversion. These findings challenge evolutionary accounts of fear preparedness and suggest that negative attitudes towards wolves can be addressed through education, communication, and public engagement.