While many people are interested in human behavior for obvious reasons, many people are also interested in the behavior of their pets. In particular, many people are interested in how their pets communicate, both with their owners and with other animals. One relevant study examined how well pet owners can comprehend pet vocalizations compared to non pet owners (Parsons et al., 2019). This article will briefly discuss this study.
Methods
The participants in this study consisted of 561 undergraduate students. Of these participants, 264 were pet owners (47%), with 184 owning a dog only, 31 owning a cat only, and 49 owning both a dog and a cat. The following measures were used in an attempt to capture the sample:
- The Edinburgh Depression Scale with the suicidality item removed (EDS-S) was used to measure symptoms of depression among the participants.
- The Generalized Anxiety Disorders Questionnaire-IV (GAD-Q-IV) was used to measure symptoms of anxiety among the participants.
- An 18-item version of the Experiences in Close Relationships measure (ECR) was used to measure adult attachment levels among the participants.
With these psychological traits of the participants measured, the experiment involving the pet sounds could continue. The following stimuli were used:
- 15 cat sounds (distress vocalizations, miaows)
- 15 dog sounds (distress vocalizations, whines)
- 19 adult distress vocalizations
- 21 infant distress vocalizations
Participants used a vertical visual analogue scale (VAS) to characterize each sound in response to the prompt, “Please indicate how happy or sad you think each sound is”, on a continuous numerical scale from + 4.00 to – 4.00, respectively.
Results
The following results were obtained:
- There were no significant differences in depression, anxiety, or ECR between pet owners and non pet owners.
- Pet owners of any kind rated both cat miaows and dog whines more negatively than non pet owners. However, cat owners rated cat miaows more negatively than any other group, while there were no differences among dog and cat owners regarding their ratings of dog whines.
- In general, adult human cries were rated the most negatively, followed in order by human infant cries, dog whines, and cat miaows.
Wrapping up
Altogether, pet owners rated dog whines and cat miaows more negatively than non pet owners. These differences could not be attributed to disparate levels of depression or anxiety in pet owners, as they were the same as those in non pet owners. This is likely not surprising to someone who owns a pet, but it is notable that owning a pet can make someone more sensitive to the distress vocalizations of pets.
References
Parsons, C.E., LeBeau, R.T., Kringelbach, M.L., Young, K.S. (2019). Pawsitively sad: pet-owners are more sensitive to negative emotion in aminal distress vocalizations. Royal Society Open Science, 6(8), 181555. doi: 10.1098/rsos.181555.
