You laugh more and enjoy life more if you are a dog owner. This is what a study by researchers at St. Bonaventure University discovered. This does not mean that cat owners are less happy, it’s just that dog owners, apparently, are happier because they laugh more.
The study titled Tails of Laughter: A Pilot Study Examining the Relationship between Companion Animal Guardianship (Pet Ownership) and Laughter studied the effect of having pets on people’s laughter. Results showed that pet owners with dogs actually laugh more.
The study involved four groups of participants: dog owners, cat owners, people with both a cat and a dog for a pet, and people with no pets at all. To gauge the laughter, each participant was asked to keep a laugh log with them. In their laugh log, they were asked to log all their laughs together with the source of their laughter and the presence or absence of other individuals whenever they do.
Collected data revealed that dog owners and those who owned both a cat and a dog laugh more often than cat owners and non-pet owners. It also showed that the most common source of laughter results from situations. People with both a cat and a dog reported more laughter induced by pet incidents. Dog owners also reported laughing more while in the presence of their pets than cat owners.
The research concluded that dogs can serve as friends that one can laugh at and laugh with. It also concluded that having dogs can allow a person to have a better and greater source of laughter.
It’s funny that a study like this even has to be performed to conclude that dogs make people’s lives more joyful and fun. With or without laughter, one’s life is infinitely way better when a dog is around.
Credits: Scientific American
