Presence of Human Friends and Pet Dogs as Moderators of Autonomic Responses to Stress in Women. K. Allen, J. Blascovich, J. Tomaka & R. Kelsey. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1991, Vol. 61, No. 4, 582-589.
In this study, Dr. Allan compared physiolgoical stress responses to a stressful task undertaken in (a) the presence of a close friend and (b) the presence of the subject’s pet dog. The hypothesis was that subjects would perceive their friend as an 'evaluative’ companion and their dog as a 'non-evaluative’ companion and therefore their authonomic physiological responses during the task would be greater in the presence of their friend than when their dog was present.
A convenience sample of 45 adult female dog owners was recruited by advertisement. The task presented to participants first in the laboratory and then two weeks later in their homes, was a standard psychological stressor-to count rapidly backwards from a four digit number (in groups of 3s and 7s, in the laboratory, and 13s and 17s in the home setting). When performing the task at home, the women subjects were allocated randomly to one of three conditions: with dog present: with friend present: with neither dog nor friend present (alone condition). The experimenter was present at all times, both in the laboratory and at home. Autonomic reactivity was measured by skin conductance response, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate.
Results showed that in the 'friend present’ condition, stress responses were stronger and task performance poorer than in the 'alone’ condition or in the 'dog present’ condition. Subjects carrying out the task with the dog present showed less physiological reactivity during the task than either of the other two groups.
This is interpreted as evidence that pet dogs are perceived as non-evaluative presence while performing a stressful mental task and friends as an evaluative presence and that this difference in perception accounts for the differential autonomic responses in the conditions studied.
