Reactive or Proactive? What’s Agency Got to Do With It?

In my last post, we talked about the use of the word “reactivity” to describe how easily an emotional response is triggered in an individual animal. In this article, I am going to talk about two perspectives on reactive and proactive responding.

The most widespread use of “proactive” and “reactive” responding occurs in the literature on coping styles. Coping styles describe how an animal characteristically responds to stress. Animals with reactive coping styles are more passive, less exploratory, and less aggressive. They also tend to have higher cortisol release when stressed (compared to increased arousal). Proactive animals on the other hand are more exploratory and can be more aggressive in some contexts. They also show relatively higher arousal (compared to cortisol release) when stressed.

Reactivity is also discussed by one of my all-time favorite papers by Justin Moscarello and Catherine Hartley. Perhaps that is not surprising given they discuss the effects of agency on behavior. Moscarello and Hartley propose that when an animal enters an unfamiliar environment they make an estimate of how much agency they will have in that environment.

Animals who predict that they will have high agency will behave proactively. That means their behavior will be more exploratory and flexible. Put another way, they engage and interact with the environment which allows them to gather information and test outcomes.

Moscarello and Hartley go on to say that animals who estimate they have low agency in an environment will behave in a more reactive way. They show withdrawal and avoidance, rely on less flexible habitual and innate behaviors and explore less. One way to think about this is that, as perceived control decreases, immediate emotional responses become more dominant compared to more intentional and flexible behavior.

Note that Moscarello and Hartley’s use of “reactive” is not the same as the use of “reactive” in coping styles. Coping styles are an aspect of personality which means they tend to be consistent across environments and across time. Moscarello and Hartley discuss reactive behavior as a response to the environment. Therefore, how reactive or proactive an animal is depends on their assessment of how much control they will have in that environment. That means an animal’s response could vary from one environment to another.

If you find this confusing and contradictory that’s because it is. The use of the term “reactive” is inconsistent within science and among professionals and lay people. However, if we take a step back and look at the different definitions of reactivity there are some themes that become clear. Reactivity seems to involve a pattern of emotional, physiological, and/or behavioral responsiveness to a stimulus. In several of the uses it is often or exclusively used in contexts involving stress, or perceived threat or lack of control. Finally, it’s used to describe behavioral responses that occur when the animal is also experiencing high emotionality, making intentional and flexible interaction with the environment less likely.

Let’s return to the concept in dogs. If we’re going to use the term, we need to make sure we are defining it first. We often use reactivity to label a behavior. I’d argue that it’s not the specific behavior that is the most important part—it’s the dog’s underlying emotional response to environmental triggers or stressors. As I said in my previous post, if that’s the case, it means that addressing the behavior in isolation will be less effective than taking a more holistic approach.

Ask the following questions in your next case: How easily is the dog’s emotional response triggered? How intense is it? How quickly do they recover? How much agency do they have? Are they able to explore, gather information, and respond flexibly—or has emotional responding become dominant? Is the emotionality happening in one specific context or across multiple contexts? What can you do to decrease the dog’s overall emotional response?

If you’d like to spend more time exploring questions like these take a look at my Research Bites mentorship where we explore, discuss, and apply the latest science in dog training and behavior.