The amazing thing about our pets isn’t just the wonderful relationships we have with them.
These beautiful creatures are also good for us, with research showing that petting your dog or cat can reduce stress levels, and it’s even an effect we can observe in the brain.
But even though the health benefits of owning a pet are well known, there is still much we don’t fully understand about how they appear.
In a new study in Biological psychologyResearchers from the University of Innsbruck in Austria studied the phenomenon and their results suggest that physical contact could be key to the positive effects that animals can produce.
“Pets enhance the affect and well-being of their owners, providing tangible benefits that extend beyond their original utilitarian roles,” explains an article led by first author and psychology researcher Vanessa Kaufmann.
“Building on this knowledge, we sought to elucidate the psychobiological mechanisms by which such benefits arise.”
Human-to-human contact is known to reduce feelings of anxiety and stress, with research showing that physical contact can reduce heart rate and cortisol responses.
Many studies have examined the well-being benefits of pet ownership, but physical contact has rarely been isolated as a stand-alone factor, meaning we don’t have strong evidence for how it might specifically reduce stress compared to other types of human-animal interactions.
To go further, Kaufmann and his fellow researchers conducted an experiment with 64 adult dog owners (51 women, 13 men, average age 34.1 years) and their dogs, all healthy and at least two years old.
In the experiment, dog owners were subjected to tests designed to increase their stress levels, while their stress responses were monitored using electrocardiography (ECG) and electroencephalography (EEG).
The stress tests involved answering general knowledge questions within strict time limits or completing an arithmetic exercise in which they had to count backwards from a given number in fixed numerical steps.
As they completed the tasks, they were monitored remotely by an evaluator, who gave them negative feedback on their performance.
After this round, participants took a 5-min cool-down period during which they could freely touch and physically interact with their dog if they wanted to, or if they were prevented from doing so because the dog was on a leash and out of reach.
Once the recovery period was over, participants were required to undergo a second round of strength testing.
The experiment produced some interesting results.
As expected, the general knowledge tests and arithmetic tests triggered signs of biological stress in participants, with ECG measurements showing an increase in heart rate and a reduction in heart rate variability.
Meanwhile, the EEG indicated that alpha brain waves (associated with relaxation) were suppressed by the stress test, while beta brain wave activity was increased, indicating greater cognitive arousal.
However, contrary to researchers’ expectations, dog owners who were able to physically interact with their pets did not appear to recover from stress more quickly during the recovery period.
But their ability to touch and pet their dog during this 5-minute window produced a significant benefit.
Participants who had physically interacted with their dog during the break showed fewer signs of stress during the second round of the stress test, suggesting that touching their pet protected them from the future stress they were about to experience.
“These results indicate that touching your dog alleviates the bodily impact of an upcoming stressor and that pet owners may naturally seek such contact when interacting with their pet,” the researchers explain.
“Thus, touch may represent an important mechanistic pathway through which upcoming threats are perceived as less threatening, potentially contributing to broader welfare benefits for pet owners.”
Interestingly, the participants’ ratings of how much stress they felt during the experiment did not reflect the physiological changes the researchers measured, suggesting that some of the effects of interacting with pets might be happening without us consciously noticing them.
But don’t let that stop you from caressing your loved ones if they are within reach.
In an invisible way, this gesture of affection could help protect you from the stress that will await you afterwards.
And even if they don’t, they’ll love you for it.
The results are reported in Biological psychology.
This article was fact-checked by Rachel Garner and edited by Rebecca Dyer. Although we are proud of our process, we are only human. If you spot an error, please let us know.
Gn Health
