Aishwarya Iyer
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Written By: Aishwarya Iyer | Published : August 27, 2018 9:53 AM IST
You may be a pet lover but if you are also asthmatic, it is wide to keep away from all pets that shed like dogs and cats. Reason: several studies have found fur of pet animals to be responsible for enhancing asthma attacks. Not just their fur or hair but also proteins present in the pet's urine, saliva and dead skin cells can also have allergic reactions and trigger asthma.
It is not uncommon of dog owners to be over-protective about their pets. Neither is it news to say that dog owners treat their dogs exactly like they treat a family member. In an attempt to find why this is so, researchers have now found that humans, indeed, are more empathetic towards 'man's best friend' than fellow humans.
What does the research say?
According to a research published in the journal Society and Animals, humans love their dogs much more than they love fellow humans. Moreover, they even prefer their four-legged buddies over kith and kin. For the experiment, 240 students were presented with fake newspaper clippings of a police report either about an attack on a person, or on a dog reportedly. In the report, the victim was attacked "with a baseball bat by an unknown assailant," and was left unconscious "with one broken leg" and "multiple lacerations," reportedly.
Every participant was given the same report. The victims were said to be aged either a year old, 30-years-old, a puppy or a 6-year-old dog. To measure the levels of their empathy, they were then asked how they felt about the incident. It was found that the empathy levels for the puppy, older dog, and the year-old- baby were on similar levels, while the adult person came last. Furthermore, the adult dog only received lower scores of empathy when compared to the infant human victim.
"Subjects did not view their dogs as animals, but rather as 'fur babies,' or family members alongside human children," the researchers concluded reportedly, showing how people often think of their pets as part of the family.
Another study published in the same journal earlier had concluded that dogs made more facial movements and hence, humans were very attracted to dogs. The study had also pointed that these facial movements were purely unconscious.
"[The research] tells us that their facial expressions are probably responsive to humans - not just to other dogs," Bridget Waller, professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Portsmouth, and author of the study, told The Guardian then. "
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