Personalities of Self-Identified “Dog People” and “Cat People”
Abstract
Alleged personality differences between individuals who self-identify as “dog people” and “cat people” have long been the topic of wide-spread speculation and sporadic research. Yet existing studies offer a rather conflicting picture of what personality differences, if any, exist between the two types of person. Here we build on previous research to examine differences in the Big Five personality dimensions between dog people and cat people. Using a publicly accessible website, 4,565 participants completed the Big Five Inventory and self-identified as a dog person, cat person, both, or neither. Results suggest that dog people are higher on Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, but lower on Neuroticism and Openness than are cat people. These differences remain significant even when controlling for sex differences in pet-ownership rates. Discussion focuses on the possible sources of personality differences between dog people and cat people and identifies key questions for future research.
... Every year, 7.6 million pets enter shelters in the US, and 2.7 million pets are euthanized (ASPCA, 2016). Understanding the relationship between human personality and preferences for pet species is important for selecting a pet that could provide physical and psycho-social benefits, for limiting the number of surrendered or abandoned animals, and ensuring animal welfare (Gosling, Sandy, & Potter, 2010;Kidd & Kidd, 1980). ...
... The general population subscribes to the idea of there being cat people and dog people who differ on basic personality characteristics, and many people are generally comfortable categorizing themselves by these groups (Alba & Haslam, 2015;Gosling et al., 2010;Woodward & Bauer, 2007). Some specialists in human-animal relationships assert that the preferences for dogs or cats, and particular breeds of dogs, are associated with underlying human personality differences (Coren, 1998). ...
... Other studies have examined a variety of personality variables and their relationship to self-identification as a cat person or a dog person (Gosling et al., 2010;Reevy & Delgado, 2015). For instance, it has been found that selfidentified dog people rated themselves as significantly less hostile and less submissive than cat people (Woodward & Bauer, 2007). ...
Understanding the relationship between human personality and preferences for pet species is important for bettering human-animal relationships, supporting animal welfare, and supporting pet therapy. The present study examined personality differences between dog people and cat people with the objective of addressing some discrepancies in previous research that could be traced to the use of broadly defined versus narrowly defined traits. Participants were 418 undergraduates who completed the Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire (16PF) and a Pet Survey that classified them as dog or cat people. The 16PF contains 15 narrowly defined primary personality traits, a brief measure of general intelligence, and 5 global factors that are comparable in meaning to those of the Five Factor Model. The principal differences were that the 352 dog people scored higher on warmth, liveliness, rule consciousness, and social boldness compared to the 66 cat people. The latter scored higher on general intelligence, abstractedness, and self-reliance. Overall, primary traits corresponded to a pattern known to be associated with creative personalities and produced better discrimination between the two groups than traits corresponded to the Five Factor Model. Some traits were more salient for females than they were for males.
... This illustrates the issue of the knowledge gap in current research, as it is important to not limit companion animal research and animalassisted interventions/therapies to dogs alone but to include other species which may play important roles in people's lives. Cats may be easier to look after for those that are less mobile (Branson et al., 2019) and cats or other species may, in fact, be preferable to dogs for many individuals (Gosling et al., 2010). ...
Australian military veterans, like many veteran populations globally, experience mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and suicide, at rates higher than the general population. The impact of having a non-formally trained companion animal on veteran mental health is largely unknown, with literature focusing on trained assistance animals to look at specific illnesses. The aims of the current study were to assess current Australian veteran pet ownership, and to investigate if there was an association between both mental health and perceived cost of pet ownership with level of attachment to ones’ pet.
An online survey targeting Australian veterans and including demographics, and validated scales for mental health, perceived cost of pet ownership and level of attachment was created. The survey was completed by 945 Australian veterans. Dogs were the most owned pet, at 86% of all respondents. Significant negative associations were found between mental health and level of attachment to a pet, with higher attachment associated with poorer mental health. In addition, the level of attachment was negatively associated with the perceived cost of pet ownership.
Pets play a vital role in the daily life of many Australian veterans. While higher attachment was associated with poorer mental health, a higher attachment was also associated with a lower perceived cost of having a pet. The costs and benefits of the human-animal bond are likely complex, and further research, including prospective studies, is required. This will ensure policy and programmes can be developed to maximise the positive impacts, whilst assisting in moderating perceived costs associated with pet ownership.
... It was previously found that higher accuracy on both the RMET and cat eyes test was positively associated with ratings of liking dogs on a simple animal preference questionnaire (9). Given this finding and the proposed existence of "cat" people and "dog" people (16), it was decided to expand the stimulus set to also include dog eyes, as in addition to adding variety, dogs should be familiar to test subjects, and work in a similar way to cats. As well as having have many of the same muscles that produce facial expressions in humans (17), dogs are adept at interacting with humans, and react to human affective states (18, 19). ...
The Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RMET) is a widely applied test of social
cognition, based on mental state judgments in response to photographs of
human eyes, which can elicit impairment in patients with numerous psychiatric
and neurological disorders. However, interpretation of task performance is limited
without the use of appropriate control tasks. In addition to a matched task
requiring age judgments of the RMET stimuli, it was recently shown that a
mental state judgment task of comparable difficulty, could be developed using
photographs of domestic cat eyes. The current study aimed to further develop
a Non-human Animal RMET (NARMET) by testing additional stimuli in the form
of photographs of domestic dog eyes. A variety of additional tasks were used
alongside the eyes test stimuli in a large sample of healthy young adults,
to explore how alexithymia, schizotypal features, and autistic tendencies may
differentially influence mental state attribution in response to cat, dog, and human
eyes test stimuli. The resulting NARMET features both cat and dog trials, depicting
a similar range of complex mental states to the human RMET. It shows favorable
psychometric properties as well as being well matched to the RMET in terms of
linguistic variables, length and difficulty. However, reading measures predicted
performance on the RMET, but not on the NARMET. Although further testing
is required in samples with a higher proportion of males, future application of
the NARMET in neuropsychiatric populations exhibiting cognitive and behavioral
difficulties could offer enhanced assessment of social cognitive skills.
... According to Durkin (2009), companion animals, especially dogs, have a strong emotional connection/attachment to their owners and are often valued just as highly as humans (Durkin, 2009). However, some studies have indicated that species of pet is not a predictor of the grief response to the loss of a pet (e.g., Gosling et al., 2010). ...
There is a well-established culture of bereavement after human loss in Africa. However, bereavement after pet loss has not been previously evaluated. This study aimed to assess pet bereavement among pet owners in Ghana. It involved a cross-sectional survey: an online structured questionnaire was administered to 390 pet owners in Ghana. The Pet Bereavement Questionnaire was used to measure the bereavement experience after pet loss. Results indicated that the majority (76.4%) of pet owners had experienced relatively strong bereavement in the form of grief, guilt, and anger. The level of pet bereavement was not significantly related to the gender (p = 0.260), employment status (p = 0.462), or marital status (p = 0.387) of the owners but was significantly associated (p < 0.05) with their age (p = 0.041) and type of animal kept (p = 0.002). In conclusion, pet bereavement among pet owners in Ghana is a significant issue. Critical care and attention should be given to owners who suffer the loss of their pets.
... According to Durkin (2009), companion animals, especially dogs, have a strong emotional connection/attachment to their owners and are often valued just as highly as humans (Durkin, 2009). However, some studies have indicated that species of pet is not a predictor of the grief response to the loss of a pet (e.g., Gosling et al., 2010). ...
There is a well-established culture of bereavement after human loss in Africa. However, bereavement after pet loss has not been previously evaluated. This study aimed to assess pet bereavement among pet owners in Ghana. It involved a cross-sectional survey: an online structured questionnaire was administered to 390 pet owners in Ghana. The Pet Bereavement Questionnaire was used to measure the bereavement experience after pet loss. Results indicated that the majority (76.4%) of pet owners had experienced relatively strong bereavement in the form of grief, guilt, and anger. The level of pet bereavement was not significantly related to the gender (p = 0.260), employment status (p = 0.462), or marital status (p = 0.387) of the owners but was significantly associated (p < 0.05) with their age (p = 0.041) and type of animal kept (p = 0.002). In conclusion, pet bereavement
among pet owners in Ghana is a significant issue. Critical care and attention should be given to owners who suffer the loss of their pets.
... Ever since, these animals have been living around our households, providing the vital protein source and economic prosperity for our civilizations, and having multi-purpose interactions with us (Siddiq, 2019). However, despite the growing interest on our relations and interactions with pets, mainly of dogs and cats (e.g., Alba & Haslam, 2015;Anderson & Olson, 2006;Connell et al., 2019;Evans-Wilday et al., 2018;Gosling et al., 2010;Gosse & Barnes, 1994;Kobayashi et al., 2017;Liu et al., 2019;Mertens, 1991;Minke, 2017;Mitchell & Sinkhorn, 2014;Perrine & Osbourne, 1998;Stammbach & Turner, 1999;Taylor et al., 2004), our complex relations and interactions with food animals -in particular, sheep, goat, cow and pig -is still a neglected field in the anthrozoological projects. This study aims to explore human-food animal relationships in traditional pastoral societies. ...
Lynn et al., (2019) accused fellow scientists of misrepresenting free-roaming cats
(Felis catus) by framing them as a global threat to biodiversity, rather than a
localised threat to specific ecosystems. These authors asserted that the narrative
created a ‘moral panic’ over free-roaming cats, which is escalated by emotive
journalistic pieces read by audiences around the world. To test this empirically, I
performed a thematic discourse analysis of user comments responding to five
news articles, a magazine, and a YouTube video related to the topic of freeroaming cats. The discourses examined flow between conservationists, the media,
and the public, and reflect the confused and convoluted ways in which people think
about cats. Here I discuss how well the data fits the moral panic theory. I analyse
how labels such as ‘feral’ serve to ‘other’ cats, rendering them objects of distain
and creating ‘folk devils’ that are deemed more killable than beloved companion
animals of the same species.
... Ever since, these animals have been living around our households, providing the vital protein source and economic prosperity for our civilizations, and having multi-purpose interactions with us (Siddiq, 2019). However, despite the growing interest on our relations and interactions with pets, mainly of dogs and cats (e.g., Alba & Haslam, 2015;Anderson & Olson, 2006;Connell et al., 2019;Evans-Wilday et al., 2018;Gosling et al., 2010;Gosse & Barnes, 1994;Kobayashi et al., 2017;Liu et al., 2019;Mertens, 1991;Minke, 2017;Mitchell & Sinkhorn, 2014;Perrine & Osbourne, 1998;Stammbach & Turner, 1999;Taylor et al., 2004), our complex relations and interactions with food animals -in particular, sheep, goat, cow and pig -is still a neglected field in the anthrozoological projects. This study aims to explore human-food animal relationships in traditional pastoral societies. ...
Humans and food animals have been in a mutual relationship for over 10 millennia. For a variety of purposes (e.g., livelihood, food, labor) humans are more dependent on food animals than on pets. Today, there is also empirical evidence for complex emotional, social and cognitive functioning among common food animals such as sheep, pigs, goats, cows and chicken. Yet, most of the anthrozoological projects have been focused on pets so far. Here, we present individual case studies on emotional bonds and the complex relationship between humans and food animals (mainly sheep, goats and cows). Through ethnographic fieldwork in pastoral villages of southeastern Turkey, we demonstrate human–food animal emotional bonds, which are similar to pet–human bonds in urban societies. Shepherds sometimes name certain sheep and goats after their own children. Some shepherds feel considerably depressed and suffer from prolonged–grief after the loss, death or selling of their animals. Many shepherds often dream about their favorite animals, and many become emotional remembering the memories of certain animals with which they had close bonds. Some never slaughter any animals from their own herds, as they cannot endure seeing the pain, suffering, and the blood of the animals they raised with love and care. Some frame and keep the photographs of particular sheep, goats and cows, as if they were photographs of people. Certain sheep, goats or cattle also show deep affections towards their shepherds. Due to their bond with shepherds, they also achieve higher rank, often act as leaders in their herds, share food, and listen to the lullaby, flute or songs of their shepherds. As shepherds raise their herds knowing that these animals will eventually be sold and slaughtered, they often form friendship and bond with some of their animals seeking for true companionship in their hard-working life. This way, the human–food animal relationships in rural southeastern Turkey become complex, conflicting, and dualistic.
Purpose- This study aims to evaluate a mostly overlooked part of tourism literature: the place of pets in pet owners' travel planning process and travelling. In this sense, the purpose of this qualitative study is to explore Turkish pet owners' perceptions of travelling with pets, and the reasons behind their willingness and unwillingness to take their pets on leisure trips. This exploratory study aims to examine factors affecting pet owners' willingness to travel with their pets, to understand their perceptions of travelling with their pets, to explore reasons behind the unwillingness to have holidays with their pets and to examine difficulties of making holiday plans as pet owners. Methodology- This exploratory research was conducted in the form of semi-structured and in-depth interviews with 52 pet owners in three big cities of Turkey (Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir). Participants of the study were selected according to the principles of criterion sampling and theory-guided sampling, which are purposive sampling methods. Conceptual analysis as a category of content analysis was employed to code the findings and identify emerging themes. Findings- The willingness and decisions about participating in leisure and tourism activities with pets are determined by the bond between pet and owner, the value attached to the pet, and the pet's role in the family. Pet owners' demographic profiles and characteristics of their pets determine the type of pet ownership and also affect all decisions made about pets such as participating in leisure activities with pets and travelling with pets. The participants with higher emotional attachment to their pets had more willingness to take their pets with them on holiday. Pet owners’ decisions about taking their pets on holiday with them are affected by some constraints stemming from their pets, themselves, or other conditions. Conclusion- The results provide an understanding of pet owners’ travel planning and travel experience including pet-related constraints, negotiation strategies of pet owners, and pet owners' willingness and unwillingness to travel with their pets. Keywords: Pets, travelling with pets, tourism consumer, constraints-negotiation model, attachment theory JEL Codes: D10, L83, M31
The paper describes the automation of process performance management in a particular company, using specially developed client application. Performance management process is based on an analysis of data from the process. The main problem, of analysis in real cases, is the low availability of data from the process and the impossibility of obtaining the analysis results in real time. A detailed specification of business requirements related to performance management in the organization is presented as well as the way of application of WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) services, the concept of business intelligence, methodology for data warehousing DW (Data Warehousing), and application of Silverlight technology for solving this problem. In particular, it shows the implementation of Silverlight client application for processes performance management within the company.
The ability of personality traits to predict important life outcomes has traditionally been questioned because of the putative small effects of personality. In this article, we compare the predictive validity of personality traits with that of socioeconomic status (SES) and cognitive ability to test the relative contribution of personality traits to predictions of three critical outcomes: mortality, divorce, and occupational attainment. Only evidence from prospective longitudinal studies was considered. In addition, an attempt was made to limit the review to studies that controlled for important background factors. Results showed that the magnitude of the effects of personality traits on mortality, divorce, and occupational attainment was indistinguishable from the effects of SES and cognitive ability on these outcomes. These results demonstrate the influence of personality traits on important life outcomes, highlight the need to more routinely incorporate measures of personality into quality of life surveys, and encourage further research about the developmental origins of personality traits and the processes by which these traits influence diverse life outcomes.
© 2007 Association for Psychological Science.
The present study explored personality differences between dog persons and cat persons. Participants (n=126) identified themselves as either a dog person, cat person, both or neither, and rated their own masculinity, femininity, independence, dominance and athleticism. Participants also read a description of a person who was labelled either dog person or cat person, and rated this person on these same personality characteristics. Results showed that females were more likely to label themselves cat persons than were males. Quality of past experience with dogs and cats was related to current ownership of dogs and cats. There were no personality differences between dog/cat owners versus non owners. However, there were personality differences between self-labelled dog versus cat persons. In addition, others attributed different personality characteristics to dog versus cat persons, often as a function of gender. The real versus perceived differences in personality were not the same.
Previous research suggests that pet owners are psychologically different than non‐owners in terms of self‐esteem and other personality characteristics. In this study, 82 pet owners and 48 non‐owners were tested on self‐esteem, extraversion, neuroticism, and social self‐esteem. Special emphasis was placed on highly attached pet owners compared with non‐owners. Level of attachment was determined by scores from the CENSHARE pet attachment survey. No significant differences were found between the groups using analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of variance statistical procedures. It was concluded that pet owners and non‐owners may not be different in terms of personality but may have become victims of stereotyping by both the general population and scientific researchers. Discussion was given to related significant findings and recommendations for further research.
Previous research suggests that pet owners are psychologically different than non-owners in terms of self-esteem and other personality characteristics. In this study, 82 pet owners and 48 non-owners were tested on self-esteem, extraversion, neuroticism, and social self-esteem. Special emphasis was placed on highly attached pet owners compared with non-owners. Level of attachment was determined by scores from the CENSHARE pet attachment survey. No significant differences were found between the groups using analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of variance statistical procedures. It was concluded that pet owners and non-owners may not be different in terms of personality but may have become victims of stereotyping by both the general population and scientific researchers. Discussion was given to related significant findings and recommendations for further research.
