Bremen. Men appear less threatening with a friendly dog by their side. Study participants from countries of origin with different security situations agree on this, as a Spanish study shows.
It is already known from previous studies that dogs make people appear more likeable and trustworthy. What is new in the study by psychologist Rafael Delgado-Rodríguez and his team is the finding that this effect occurs across countries – regardless of how safe people feel in their social environment.
Survey of 251 young women
131 students from Spain and 120 students from Colombia, two countries with very different levels of security, evaluated photos with different social scenes: neutral everyday situations as well as potentially threatening encounters. The threatening images showed a man either alone or accompanied by a dog.
The result of the study published in the journal “Anthrozoös”: When the man was accompanied by a dog, the scenes appeared less unpleasant, more controllable and safer to the women. This so-called dog-accompanying effect was evident in both countries, i.e. both in the comparatively safe Spain and in the less safe Colombia.
Dogs mitigate threatening situations
At the same time, the photos with a dog were rated significantly more positively than the threatening scenes without a dog, but remained more negative than neutral comparison images. This shows that the defensive motivation system, i.e. a certain level of alertness, remains active despite the calming effect.
In everyday life, this means: Dogs can strengthen the subjective feeling of security and emotionally mitigate threatening situations, regardless of the cultural or social context. Their effect does not replace an objective feeling of security, but offers noticeable emotional relief – and once again underlines the special social importance of the human-dog relationship.
Source: Pet Animals in Society Research Group