I'm not so sure about that. I think dogs are complex, they just aren't as complex as humans. Human's make things more complex than they need to be and the world is full of BS and unimportant stuff created by humans.
"In one study Roberts and a colleague conducted, an owner walked her dog across a field and then fell to the ground, feigning a heart attack. Two other humans were seated nearby, pretending to be reading. The owner lay still for six minutes, and over repeated trials with different human and animal subjects, not a single dog sought help.."
New research is revealing how complex a dog’s brain actually is.
time.com
My take on this simple. The dogs just understood that the human were faking it, so there was no need to go get help or show concern. If dogs are highly skilled a reading human body language then it makes more sense they just knew what was up. They probably just sat there to see how long that dumb human would stay on the ground lol.
On the most basics of animal behavior. Animals have a good feel for when another animal is really injured. It's the same thing lions do when searching for prey. They look for the young, sick, and injured because those are going to be the easy ones to get. I've seen a spider do the same behavior. So a human thinking that laying on the ground is enough to fool an animal is funny to me.
Just saying. I think dogs can tell when something is wrong and not normal. Unless it's my dog. my dog just doesn't have the band width lol. She'll probably let me die then try to eat me lol