7. Trending: 4 Legged Members of the Family Flashcards
An early study on pet preferences (Kidd & Kidd, 1980) compared male and female dog and cat lovers on several different personality traits. They found that male dog-lovers were
higher on dominance and aggression compared to the other groups
(Kidd & Kidd, 1980) also found that female cat-lovers were
female cat-lovers were lower dominance and aggression
female dog-lovers were
lower on aggression
Among cat-lovers, they found that the females were lower on
nurturance and the males were higher on autonomy
Other early research found that males high on extraversion were
more likely to prefer dogs rather than cats
People who identify as “dog-people” have also been
found to be higher on masculinity and independence compared to those who identify as “cat-people”
Research that has asked people what their ideal pet was found that those who said it was a dog were lower on
hostility
Gosling, Sandy, and Potter (2010) found that dog-people were higher than cat-people on
extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness
cat-people were higher than dog-people on
neuroticism and openness to experience
Gosling, Sandy, and Potter (2010) found that even after accounting for gender, these personality differences between cat-people and dog-people _____
remained
Alba & Haslam, 2015) argued that the reasons for these differences in pet preferences might have to do with the way that a pet
complements the personality of its owner
Alba and Haslam argued that since dogs tend to be obedient and submissive towards their owners (or can at least be trained in this way), they will be preferred more by people higher on
dominance-related traits
Alba and Haslam did find that dog-people were higher than cat-people on
competitiveness and social dominance orientation
Social dominance orientation is the preference for
hierarchy and involves the belief that higher-ranked groups are entitled to dominate those who are subordinate
one study found that interacting with trained therapy dogs was beneficial for
first-year university students experiencing homesickness