There's a popular belief that having a pet or two can help relieve depression, anxiety, loneliness and other modern maladies. During the pandemic, many people stock up on dogs, cats and so forth, hoping for relief from their angst.
Well, that's fine, although sadly many of those pets have since been dropped at shelters as their owners went back to work or found that having a small furry friend was a lot of fuss and bother, minus the advertised emotional relief.
Researchers at Aarhus University and King’s College London decided to test the theory that pets provide an emotional boost.
The results? No evidence that pet ownership reliably offers an emotional boost.
“Our findings suggest that while pets can provide companionship, they are by no means a cure-all for mental health issues, especially during stressful times like a pandemic,” said Professor Christine Parsons from the Department of Clinical Medicine.
No mental health benefits found
The study tracked 6,018 individuals in the UK over a 12-month period, assessing their levels of depression, anxiety, anhedonia (loss of pleasure), and loneliness.
Contrary to popular assumptions, the study found no evidence that pet ownership improved these mental health outcomes. In fact, pet owners reported slightly worse mental health outcomes compared to non-owners.
“Although the body of research done on the topic has been mixed, we were genuinely surprised to find that pet owners generally experienced slightly higher levels of depression, anxiety, and anhedonia during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Parsons.
“This runs counter to a prevailing public belief that pets are beneficial for mental health,” she conceded.
Testing the ‘Lassie effect’
Another commonly held belief is that dog owners in particular benefit from increased physical activity and a more structured daily routine, which in turn might lead to improved mental health.
Here researchers found that dog owners really were more likely to engage in daily exercise (40% compared to 35% of non-owners).
However, this increased activity did not correlate with better mental health outcomes and no significant difference was found between dog owners and non-owners with regards to maintaining a daily structure.
The myth of the lonely ‘Cat lady’
The only area where pet ownership provides a mental health benefit is in relation to loneliness. In popular culture, the trope of the "Cat lady" is a lonely, anxious woman with mental health issues. The new study also gave researchers the opportunity to test some of these cultural assumptions against reality.
Among individuals living alone, both dog and cat owners reported slightly lower levels of loneliness than those without pets. Even though the effects were small, they ran opposite to the lonely "Cat lady" trope.
For those living as couples, families, or roommates, pet owners reported no measurable difference in the feeling of loneliness.
While women in the study were clearly more likely to own cats (30.3 % compared to 22.7% in males), they were not more lonely, depressed, anxious or anhedonic than men who owned cats.