Category: Pets

By Brad Bell

Pets are important. They provide joy, laughter, and companionship.  Some people may see them as members of their families.  Just like dogs and cats, birds as pets help make our lives meaningful and rewarding. In Anderson’s (2003) study, 106 parrot owners responded to an essay question involving what they thought was most rewarding concerning avian companionship.  The most frequent response was love/unconditional love (39% of the 106 participants). The second most frequent response was perceiving birds as family members (38% of the 106 participants).  Twenty-nine percent listed companionship for this question.  Providing joy was listed by 23%.   Moreover, it is interesting that making them (owner) laugh was indicated by 26%. It appears that the parrot owners are quite attached to their parrots.   This is also reflected in the amount of time they spend with their parrots.   About forty-six percent of them spend more than three hours interacting
with their birds each day. (1)

Notes

1.  See Anderson’s article for other findings.

References  

Anderson, P. K. (2003).  A bird in the house:  An anthropological
 perspective on companion parrots.  Society & Animals, 11, 393-418.

By Brad Bell

Pets are very important to us.  We may consider them part of the family.  Does our attachment to our pets make us feel that they have more positive attributes than the pets of other people?

In Study 1, El-Alayli, Lystad, Webb, Hollingsworth, and Ciolli (2006) had participants rate their pets and the average pet on 22 personality attributes.  Some of these were positive (e.g., loyal and friendly), and some of them were negative (e.g., lazy and mean).  On the average, the participants rated their own pets as higher on the positive attributes than the average pet.  Moreover, on the average, the participants rated their own pets as lower on the negative attributes than the average pet. In their second study, participants rated their own pets and the “average person’s pet” on the same 22 attributes. The findings of their secondly replicated the above findings.  Moreover, they found that this bias for perceiving one’s own pet more favorably was correlated with pet attachment.  

In other words, people who were more attached to their pets were more likely to exhibit a stronger bias in the evaluation of their pets. (1) Imagine the implications of the findings.  If your dog is running loose in the neighborhood, you may describe him as an “explorer.”   However, your neighbors may describe him as “reckless.”

Notes

1.  See their article for other findings.

References

El-Alayli, A., Lystad, A. L., Webb, S. R., Hollingsworth, S. L., & Ciolli, J. L. (2006).  Reigning cats and dogs:  A pet-enhancement bias and its link to pet attachment, pet-self similarity, self-enhancement, and well-being.  Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 28, 131-143.