“Do Dog Owners Make Better Lovers?”
If you know me, you know I love dogs, so a title like the one above is guaranteed to reel me in, even though I usually do my upmost to avoid click-bait where I can. After all, we all know that leaders like, I hugged a lion — you won’t believe what happened next, get you nowhere fast. Nevertheless, this one worked, and I admit to being a little deflated when I realised that this was actually a serious piece, but it was debunking the original assertion made in Psychology Today, as the initial article did not actually support its own claim.
That’s not to say that I didn’t find anything positive to feed my inherent belief in the benefits of sharing my life with a number of canine companions over the years. For instance, the author of the critical piece, Hal Herzog (a university lecturer who writes for the same magazine) did point out the reference to a “clever” experiment, carried out in France. In the study, two social psychologists found that a good-looking man enjoyed more success in obtaining phone numbers from women if he had his dog with him (single guys who endured a solitary Valentine’s Day last week, take note).
Sadly, our furry friends (dogs included) don’t have the same effect for female lonely hearts. A study of 1210 clients of online dating site, Match.com, found that woman were keener on those men whose profiles indicated that they loved their pets, than those who didn’t feature any. But this effect didn’t work the other way around. Perhaps this says something about the value women place upon a man’s ability to demonstrate his caring side and how this quality would be valuable in any potential long-term relationship. Women, it seems, do like softies.
The persuasive sway dogs hold over many of us is also evident in other areas of social interaction. As dusk falls on the streets of my local town, the doorways and sheltered areas of the high street are soon populated with sleeping bags and piles of clothing as another inhospitable night approaches. This is an event repeated all over the country and, increasingly, the homeless found there are accompanied by their dogs. Not only are these animals providing the comfort and friendship all dog owners value in their pets, but research has found that, at least on the streets of France, they could also contribute substantially to the amount of money given to their owners by kind-hearted passers-by.
In this experiment, a researcher asked 160 people if they could spare the money for the bus. His 11% success rate rose to 35% when he had his dog with him and, what’s more, folk were more generous, increasing their donations by 20%. Now, I can’t claim that this is what would happen here — replication of the study, and all that — but it’s certainly interesting how much influence this doggy pal had over complete strangers.
Back to where I began, though. It may not be that dog owners make better lovers, but it does seem that they may enjoy better relationships with their other halves thanks to their dogs — or even their cats.
In the interest of fairness and balance, I feel I mustn’t claim all the praise for dogs, superior as they may be. I am willing to admit that, although I really don’t get it myself, some people prefer cats. I know. You can’t help it. But, I am willing to concede that you are nice people, too. Research backs me up on this.
Couples who are owned by dogs and cats — yes, it is that way around — are more likely to be happy, than those who haven’t spent most of their disposable income on their animals. Alright, I added the last bit myself, but a study of 100 couples, fifty who owned a pet, and fifty who didn’t, found that those with a pet had lower blood pressure on average. They were also likely to interact more with each other if they had a pet (so maybe that’s where the romance does come in) and would regain a normal blood pressure quicker after a stressful event (good for those rows, sorry, healthy disagreements).
While we are talking about the difference between dog people and cat people, it’s not all good news. While us dog-owners are, of course, lovely people, apparently, we do have a few minor flaws. A 2015 study set out to see if people chose a dog or cat because they complemented their own personality traits. From this, I was rather concerned to find that, according to their research, I am dominant, competitive and narcissistic. Oh, well. Can’t be perfect , I suppose— but it did make me wonder what pets the researchers themselves owned…Meow.
