Grumpy Cat On Hump Day: Animals' Effects On Mind, Body, and Spirit--And What We Ought to Do About It

Considered fundamental human emotions, compassion and empathy are essential in society. Therefore, it is important to find ways to increase these emotions. Although correlational and anecdotal research suggest that human-animal interaction (HAI) increases empathy and compassion, few, if any, studies experimentally assess the effects of HAI on these emotions. Our study aimed to experimentally determine if petting rats increases humans’ compassion and empathy, how treatment duration [(petting a rat every day (longer-term intervention group) or petting a rat once (immediate intervention group)] affects these results, and how long these effects last. We expected that HAI would increase compassion and empathy in both groups, but that only the longer-term intervention group would have long-term changes. We found a significant interaction between day of testing and group for compassionate love of humanity, compassionate love of specific close others, and empathic concern such that these measures increased in the longer-term, but not the immediate, intervention group. We also assessed the effects of consistent and inconsistent HAI on rats’ anxiety levels as measured in an elevated plus-maze, expecting HAI to decrease rats’ anxiety. Although we did not find a significant effect for amount of HAI (minimal, consistent, or inconsistent), we found a significant interaction between HAI and day of testing such that only consistent HAI rats had low anxiety the first day of testing and increased anxiety the last day of testing. Application of these results to societal systems, including animal research and social work, can improve human and animal life. PETTING ON COMPASSION AND RATS’ ANXIETY 2