The results showed a powerful connection between humans and dogs, with most participants correctly interpreting the emotion behind growls as well as the context, with an overall success rate of 63%.

The findings also showed that female participants understanding of the dogs was much better, with more women correctly perceiving what the dogs were trying to convey.

Tamás Faragó, the lead author of the study told Broadly, “Our recent fMRI studies suggest that dogs and humans use similar brain areas and probably similar processes to assess others’ emotions from vocalizations.

“This is a common pattern in emotion recognition studies.”

Faragó continued, “women are likely more empathic and sensitive to others’ emotions and this helps them to better associate the contexts with the emotional content of the growls.”

This isn’t the first-time women have been likened to mindreaders because of their empathy skills.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge released the results of a 20-year study into ‘cognitive empathy’, which examined why some people are better at interpreting what’s going on in another person’s head, and found that women are much better at it than men because they are genetically more empathetic.

If you’re anything like us, you’ll be thrilled with the news that we’ve got canines on our side thanks to our elevated emotional intelligence.

Looks to us like the phrase “man’s best friend” could do with an update.

Images: Isi Akahome / Joao Victor Xavier

Here's why a woman's connection with her dog is stronger than a man's