The headline may sound a bit radical, but psychologists assure it. It turns out that the popular saying that assures that dogs are man’s best friends seems to be becoming more relevant than ever.
Specifically, dogs would be excellent company for several reasons, but the idea gains strength because recent research indicates that These types of pets help significantly in stressful situations.
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In detail, the bodies of the owners would be less physiologically reactive to these pressure scenarios if dogs are present.
“Dogs do not judge or criticize you. They just sit there and look at you with loving eyes,” Evangeline Wheeler, psychology professor at Towson University in Maryland, told National Geographic magazine. She herself assures that these give a “sense of security.”
And the evidence? Just to give one example of several, in 2023 a study was published in the magazine Emotion that had participants solve sums and measured its subsequent effects.
Precisely those who interacted with their dog, after the task, experienced an improvement in their mood and one anxiety reductionabove those who simply painted a coloring book or sat down for 10 minutes to rest.
“He doesn’t judge you for being stressed or being a coward.”, added Hannah Raila, a psychologist at UC Santa Cruz. “There is a raw honesty you can have with your dog that you can’t always have it with other people”, stated Lori Kogan, a health professional at Colorado State University.
Even It is recommended to talk to the dogs, even about topics that could be emotionally tense. In fact, in interactions like this you can receive a dose of oxytocin or “love/hug hormone”decreasing the short-term stress response.
“Dogs are fantastic at reading us and you could say that They are better at reading us than some people“Kogan added.
