Cats and Dogs Provide Similar Emotional Benefits, Study Finds

Most pet owners would insist that their animal improves their life, particularly when they are under pressure.

A cat curling up beside someone’s knee or a dog edging nearer after a demanding day can seem like compelling evidence of that.

Researchers have shared that suspicion for decades. Yet the research supporting this comforting impression has remained unexpectedly inconsistent.

While some studies report distinct advantages to sharing life with animals, others identify no effect whatsoever, or even potential drawbacks.

A Dutch research team therefore examined the issue more closely. Its aim was to establish not only whether pets are beneficial, but also how they might help and whether cats and dogs do so differently.

Do pets provide emotional benefits?

For years, one explanation has dominated the field. It is widely assumed that animals offer their greatest comfort when life becomes stressful, effectively serving as emotional shock absorbers.

Known as the stress-buffering hypothesis, this idea may sound self-evident. However, it has rarely been tested amid the untidy realities of day-to-day life.

Researchers at the Open University in the Netherlands sought to assess it directly. They also investigated whether any effect differed between people who owned cats and those who owned dogs.

Five days of everyday life

The researchers enrolled 188 dog and cat owners from the Netherlands and Belgium. Participants continued with their usual routines while receiving random prompts through an app.

The app sent up to 10 prompts each day over five consecutive days. On every occasion, owners recorded their mood, stress levels and whether they were interacting with their pet.

This approach, called ecological momentary assessment, records emotions as they happen instead of depending on potentially unreliable recollections from weeks earlier.

By the study’s conclusion, the team had collected nearly 8,000 real-time snapshots. Very few studies exploring pets and emotions approach this volume of data.

Pets improve mood

The main finding was encouraging. Times when people interacted more with their pets were associated with more positive emotional responses and fewer negative ones.

This association remained after the researchers adjusted for age, gender and whether an owner was alone. Notably, being alone was independently linked with a lower mood.

The everyday emotional lift offered by a pet therefore appears to be real. Animals do seem to make ordinary moments brighter.

Cats and dogs offer similar emotional benefits

The first surprise was that the advantage was not dependent on species.

Owners of dogs and owners of cats described almost the same emotional improvements. The team had anticipated that dogs would perform better because of their sociable reputation.

“Dog owners were probably more likely to identify as ‘dog people,’ whereas cat owners were more likely to identify as ‘cat people,'” said first author Dr. Sanne Peeters, a researcher at the Open University.

“It’s possible that this owner-pet ‘match’ partly explains why the findings were so similar for dogs and cats.”

The stress-buffering theory falls short

The key issue was then examined: did interaction with a pet actually reduce the emotional impact of a stressful event?

The answer was no. Overall, turning to a pet during a stressful emotional experience did not shield an owner’s mood.

Study co-author Dr. Mayke Janssens is an assistant professor of psychology at the Open University.

“Our findings indicate that stress-buffering is not the mechanism causing momentary emotional well-being when interacting with a pet. Interaction with either species did not act as a buffer for negative emotions,” said Janssens.

“The positive effects of pet interaction on well-being appear to be genuine, but they don’t seem to happen because pets help people handle stress better at the exact moment the stress occurs.”

“Interacting more intensively with the companion animal did not provide additional emotional benefits beyond those that may arise from the animal simply being present.”

Some pets may intensify emotional stress

Among cat owners experiencing stress, greater interaction was connected with stronger rather than weaker negative emotions.

“In cats, we even observed that a higher level of interaction was associated with a stronger link between stress and negative emotions in owners,” Janssens noted.

The effect was limited, and the cat group included only 58 owners. The researchers advise against drawing overly firm conclusions from it.

“One speculative explanation is that because interactions with cats are often more passive and less demanding in nature, a higher level of interaction might be more emotionally evocative. This might not match the need for support in stressful moments,” said Peeters.

A different explanation

If reducing stress is not what drives the effect, what might account for the improvement?

“It could be that interacting with a pet provides a sense of companionship and that pets help people feel more connected and less alone which, in turn, could contribute to improved emotional well-being,” said Janssens.

Put differently, pets may help through daily companionship rather than by providing rescue in difficult moments. Their worth may lie in routine hours rather than the toughest ones.

No winner, only preference

Which animal, then, wins the familiar debate? Based on these findings, neither does.

“I wouldn’t say that one species makes a ‘better’ pet than the other,” concluded Peeters.

“Instead, it’s more likely about owner personality and preference. The main conclusion is that interacting with dogs and cats appears to provide similar emotional benefits.”

The finding concerns the relationship itself more than a contest between cats and dogs. Select the animal that fits you, and everyday comfort is likely to follow.