There is a widespread belief that pets are beneficial to one’s health. A new study from Michigan State University discovered that, while pet owners stated that their pets improved their lives, there was no reliable relationship between pet ownership and well-being during the COVID-19 epidemic.
The study, which was published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, evaluated 767 people three times in May 2020. The researchers used a mixed-methods approach that allowed them to look at numerous markers of well-being while also asking people to reflect on the function of dogs from their perspective in an open-ended question.
Pet owners stated that their pets made them joyful. They reported that pets made them feel happier by providing affection and connection.
No Happy Transformations
The participants also reported negative aspects of pet ownership, like being worried about their pet’s well-being and having their pets interfere with working remotely.
However, when their happiness was compared to that of non-pet owners, data revealed no variation in their well-being over time. The researchers discovered that it didn’t matter what kind of pet they had, how many pets they had, or how close they were to their pet. The personalities of the owners played no role.
“People say that pets make them happy, but when we actually measure happiness, that doesn’t appear to be the case. People see friends as lonely or wanting companionship, and they recommend getting a pet. But it’s unlikely that it’ll be as transformative as people think,”
said co-author William Chopik, an associate professor in MSU’s Department of Psychology.
An Unfair Bet
The researchers investigated numerous possible explanations for why there is no difference in the well-being of pet owners and non-pet owners. One of them is that non-pet owners may have filled their life with a number of other pleasurable things.
“Staking all of your hope on a pet making you feel better is probably unfair and is maybe costly given other things you could do in your life that could improve your happiness,”
added Chopik.
Abstract
Pet ownership has often been lauded as a protective factor for well-being, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. We expanded this question to consider how pet (i.e., species, number) and owner (i.e., pet relationship quality, personality, attachment orientations) characteristics affected the association between pet ownership and well-being in a pre-registered mixed method analysis of 767 people assessed three times in May 2020. In our qualitative analyses, pet owners listed both benefits and costs of pet ownership during the COVID-19 pandemic. In our quantitative analyses, we found that pet ownership was not reliably associated with well-being. Furthermore, this association largely did not depend on the number of pets owned, the species of pet(s) owned, the quality of the human–pet relationship, or the owner’s psychological characteristics. Our findings are consistent with a large body of research showing null associations of pet ownership on well-being (quantitatively) but positive reports of pet ownership (qualitatively).
Reference:
- Chopik, W. J., Oh, J., Weidmann, R., Weaver, J. R., Balzarini, R. N., Zoppolat, G., & Slatcher, R. B. (2023). The Perks of Pet Ownership? The Effects of Pet Ownership on Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, doi: 10.1177/01461672231203417