Cats and Dogs Can Boost Mood but Not Momentary Stress

Many people reasonably assume that pets invariably provide their owners with emotional support, yet robust scientific proof of this effect remains unexpectedly scarce.

Although pets are widely believed to benefit us, research findings on the subject are often contradictory.

A review of the evidence suggests that keeping a pet can influence physical and mental health in both helpful and harmful ways.

New research by scientists at the Open University in the Netherlands offers further insight, drawing on information from owners of cats and dogs, the world's most popular companion animals.

The researchers identified clear differences between the health effects linked to the two species, including one situation in which cat ownership appeared to be disadvantageous.

Owners who said they felt stressed in the moment tended to feel worse when their interactions with their cat were more intense.

"Interaction with either species did not act as a buffer for negative emotions," says psychologist Mayke Janssens.

"In cats, we even observed that a higher level of interaction was associated with a stronger link between stress and negative emotions in owners."

Cats, dogs and momentary stress

The dataset included 188 people who owned cats, dogs, or both.

Using a data-collection app, the team contacted participants on their phones several times each day and requested brief updates on their mood, stress levels and how much they were interacting with their pets.

This approach to tracking people has a formal technical term: ecological momentary assessment, or EMA.

More intensive interactions with cats appeared to heighten owners' stress, while dogs could not consistently be considered buffers against stress either.

"Our findings indicate that stress-buffering is not the mechanism causing momentary emotional well-being when interacting with a pet," says Janssens.

In statistical terms, spending time with dogs had no positive or negative effect on stress.

"One speculative explanation is that because interactions with cats are often more passive and less demanding in nature, a higher level of interaction might be more emotionally evocative," says psychologist Sanne Peeters.

"This might not match the need for support in stressful moments."

Pets can still improve mood

The findings were more encouraging for owners' overall mood and their positive and negative emotions. Time spent with both cats and dogs was generally associated with more positive emotions and fewer negative ones.

Pets may therefore support mental health and well-being more broadly, even if they do not help in moments of stress.

Future studies could explore why these patterns emerge and examine different forms of interaction in greater detail.

This research differentiated only by the intensity of interactions at a given moment, rather than whether those encounters were positive - such as genuine cuddling - or negative - such as attempting to bathe a cat.

"The positive effects of pet interaction on well-being appear to be genuine, but they don't seem to happen because pets help people handle stress better at the exact moment the stress occurs," says Janssens.

"Interacting more intensively with the companion animal did not provide additional emotional benefits beyond those that may arise from the animal simply being present."

Limits of the cats and dogs study

Although the researchers recorded thousands of data points in total, cat owners were less well represented than dog owners, which may have affected the results to some extent.

As with all research, the broader evidence also matters. For instance, pet ownership has been linked with benefits for the ageing brain, including protection from cognitive decline and memory difficulties.

For this particular study, however, the evidence suggests that cats and dogs can lift mood without necessarily easing stress in the immediate moment.

"I wouldn't say that one species makes a better pet than the other," says Peeters. "Instead, it's more likely about owner personality and preference."

"The main conclusion is that interacting with dogs and cats appears to provide similar emotional benefits."

The study was published in Frontiers in Psychology.