Petting your dog may help your body handle the next stressful situation better
Coming home to a four-legged furry friend wagging their tail can ease the stress accumulated throughout the day. Since time immemorial, humans have found comfort in petting their dogs. A large body of research acknowledges the well-being benefits of pet ownership, but the mechanisms that drive those benefits remain murky.
Coming home to a dog can ease accumulated stress, but the mechanisms behind this remain unclear. Researchers at the University of Innsbruck studied whether petting a dog could help people recover better from stress. Fifty-seven participants, mostly women aged 34 on average, were tested with their dogs. They faced stressful mental tasks while researchers monitored their brain activity, heart rate, and emotional responses.
Participants were divided into two groups - one could pet their dogs, while the other could not. The results showed that petting a dog during a stress recovery period did not speed up the body's return to a calm state compared to no-touch interaction. However, petting did help the body brace for the next stressor, as evidenced by weaker physiological responses to a second stress task. This suggests that physical touch plays a role in the well-being benefits of pet ownership.
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