Dogs are Experts at Empathy
Every dog owner out there knows that petting your canine friend makes you more relaxed and experience an overall sense of well-being. A recent study has proven that this isn’t just all in our imagination, it in fact has been proven by science.
Petting a dog decreases levels of stress hormones, regulates breathing, lowers blood pressure and releases the hormone oxytocin, which is associated with bonding and affection. Medically speaking, people who pet dogs literally feel better.
The results however, aren’t limited there. A further study to determine whether dogs actively show empathy was done to reveal astounding results.
Volunteers were asked “to either pretend to cry or just ‘hum in a weird way,’ ” according to National Geographic, who reported on the study. The response blew everyone away. Pretty much every single dog came near to pay attention to the criers, even if they were perfect strangers. The hummers went unnoticed.
Visit the Denver Post for more on “Dogs as empathy experts: It’s their silence that does the trick“.