Baines, Leah Michelle, and Oliva, Jessica Lee (2024) Unleashing the Personality Divide: Resilience in Dog Owners, Neuroticism in Cat Owners. Anthrozoos, 37 (6). pp. 1155-1170.

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Abstract

Personality differences have been reported in “dog people” and “cat people” across all Big Five personality traits. Dog ownership has also been associated with reduced loneliness in people living alone during periods of prolonged isolation, which may be suggestive of higher levels of resilience in this population of pet owners. This research extends these findings by investigating the predictive power of dog vs. cat ownership on Big Five personality traits and resilience in an Australian population, after controlling for age and gender. Three hundred and twenty-one participants completed an online survey consisting of questions on demographics, pet ownership, and personality, as well as providing free-hand responses for their choice in pet. As hypothesized, dog ownership was found to positively predict resilience, while cat ownership positively predicted neuroticism. In contrast to our expectations, no other personality differences were found between pet owners. Qualitative insights suggest pet choice is driven simply by “liking” that pet (i.e., being a “dog person” or “cat person”), pet personality factors, lifestyle habits, and living situations. Findings suggest that personality factors might explain why people who choose to own dogs fare better than people who choose not to own dogs during challenging times of social isolation, which may be unrelated to the animal itself.

Item ID:	86636
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1753-0377
Copyright Information:	© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupThis is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in anymedium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on whichthis article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Date Deposited:	12 Aug 2025 22:21
FoR Codes:	52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5205 Social and personality psychology > 520503 Personality and individual differences @ 100%
SEO Codes:	28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280121 Expanding knowledge in psychology @ 100%
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