Does Human Personality Affect Pet Ownership?
Written by Erica Wang
Edited by Aaron Wright
Jan 31, 2021
Edited by Aaron Wright
Jan 31, 2021
Cats, dogs, and other pets are common in American households. Owners everywhere dote on their beloved pets. A study conducted by Gretchen Reevy and Mikel Delgado from California State University: East Bay and the University of California at Berkeley respectively, seeks to learn more about the human-pet bond and how to improve pet ownership. They explore how being a Dog Person, Cat Person, both, or neither correlates to personality and attachment style.
To test this, 1,098 participants took three surveys and were asked to identify as a Cat Person, Dog Person, both, or neither. These surveys included the Big Five Index, the Pet Attachment Questionnaire, and the Lexington Attachment to Pet Scale. The Big Five Index measures the following personality traits: extraversion (being social and positive), neuroticism (having negative emotions like depression and anxiety), conscientiousness (wanting to complete tasks), agreeableness (being friendly), and openness (being adventurous and curious). The Pet Attachment Questionnaire (PAQ) calculates to what extent an owner’s attachment to their pet is avoidant (viewing their pets as bothersome or unimportant) or anxious (constantly worrying about their pet and needing reassurance of its love). Low scores for both types is indicative of secure and healthy attachment. Interestingly, attachment style is typically used when observing parent-child relationships. Reevy and Delgado make the argument that owner-pet relationships form a kind of secondary attachment relationship. The final test is the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS), which measures the affection level of owners towards their pets.
The results show some correlations between the type of pet person, personality, and attachment style. Self-proclaimed Dog People tend to be more extraverted and agreeable, and less neurotic than Cat People. Owners that identified as both are similar to Dog People in extraversion and agreeableness, but more similar to Cat People in openness. They also scored higher in affection and anxious attachment than all other pet person types. Those that identified as neither had significantly higher avoidant attachment ratings. Personality traits that decrease avoidant attachment are conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, and neuroticism. Neuroticism, being a Dog Person, or being both have tendencies toward anxious attachment. Conscientious and neurotic personalities are strongly correlated with high affection.
Focusing on conscientiousness and neuroticism, both personality traits showed increased affection and low avoidant attachment. Conscientiousness as a desirable trait in pet owners seems reasonable; they have good work ethic and drive and generally behave in ways that benefit others. What about neurotic personalities? The neurotic personality is often associated with instability, as well as both loose or strict parenting. Unlike children, pets do not gain independence when they grow older. Since neuroticism is linked to high anxious attachment, it could be beneficial for pet owners to exhibit clinginess associated with anxious attachment. These owners will be more likely to be attentive and sensitive to their pet’s needs.
Work Cited
Reevy, Gretchen M., and Mikel M. Delgado. “Are Emotionally Attached Companion Animal Caregivers Conscientious and Neurotic? Factors That Affect the Human–Companion Animal Relationship.” Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, vol. 18, no. 3, 2014, pp. 239–258., doi:10.1080/10888705.2014.988333.