The Sounds Our Pets Make Seriously Affect Our Emotions
Do you have a cat or dog? If so, this will make perfect sense to you. New research finds pet owners are more sensitive to sad animal emotions expressed as…
(Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesDo you have a cat or dog? If so, this will make perfect sense to you.
New research finds pet owners are more sensitive to sad animal emotions expressed as vocalizations.
One of the researchers explained, “Pet ownership is associated with greater sensitivity to pet distress sounds, and it may be part of the reason why we are willing to spend large amounts of time and money on our domestic companions. It might also explain why we find interacting with pets so rewarding, and are emotionally impacted by them."
In fact, BOTH cat and dog owners perceived dog whines as “sad” when compared with people who had no pets. Cat meows, on the other hand, only sounded sad to people who owned cats. Both dog and cat owners described a whimpering dog sound as sounding as sad as a crying infant.
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