Latest news with #AdelinaGschwandtner
CNN
09-04-2025
- Health
- CNN
Pets could boost wellbeing as much as a wife or husband, study suggests
Having a cat or a dog to keep you company could boost your wellbeing as much as being married or meeting up regularly with friends and relatives, new research suggests. The study, which was published on March 31 in the journal Social Indicators Research, concludes that having an animal companion is worth up to £70,000 ($90,000) a year in life satisfaction – a metric economists use to quantify the 'implicit price' of otherwise intangible things. That figure is roughly the same as the theoretical boost in income you would get from having a spouse or meeting up with friends and relatives regularly, researchers said, comparing their findings with other studies that have used the same statistical method. The results surprised even the researchers. 'First when I obtained the values I was surprised; I was thinking that is a lot of money even for me who loves (pets),' said Adelina Gschwandtner, an economics professor at the University of Kent, who co-authored the paper. Then, she thought, 'most people claim that their pets are like friends or family members to them, so that is comparable,' she told CNN. 'If pets are indeed like friends and family, why shouldn't that measure be comparable to talking to friends and family once a week? You have your pet every day.' Although the mental and physical health benefits of having a dog, in particular, are well known, there is more debate among scientists surrounding the overall impact of pets on their owners' wellbeing. '(It's) a little bit more complex than people think,' says Megan Mueller, an associate professor at Tufts University, who studies the relationship between people and animals and wasn't involved in this study. 'A lot of us perceive our pets as contributing to our life satisfaction but depending on how you measure that in the research it comes out different ways,' she told CNN, adding that she was unfamiliar with the specific statistical analysis Gschwandtner used in this study. In their study, Gschwandtner and her co-author Michael Gmeiner, an assistant profes sor of economics at the London School of Economics, used data collected in a long-running survey of 2,500 British households. Rather than simply comparing life satisfaction and pet ownership, which would reveal little except a correlation between the two variables, the economists then set about proving a causal link. To do this, they used a complicated statistical tool known as an instrumental variables approach. This works by finding 'a third variable which is correlated with … in our case the pets but is not correlated with life satisfaction,' Gschwandtner explained. 'And so what this variable tries to capture is potential omitted variables, potential reverse causation.' For example, the authors wrote, 'It could be that happy and healthy people decide to take a pet as a companion rather than pets making people happy and healthy.' So, in their research, they used survey data on personality types as well as pet ownership and life satisfaction, to control for this factor. If pets improve life satisfaction as much as the study suggests, Gschwandtner called on policymakers to make it easier for people to own them, for example by relaxing regulations that restrict renters' access to them. However, Mueller cautioned against 'anthropomorphizing pets too much' and equating our relationships with them to our relationships with other humans. 'There's some elements that are similar,' she said. 'And we know that social support and emotional support are really key aspects of human-pet relationships that are also the same types of support we get from our human social connections… While animals are connected to us in powerful ways, they are not the same as humans.'
CNN
09-04-2025
- Health
- CNN
Pets could boost wellbeing as much as a wife or husband, study suggests
Having a cat or a dog to keep you company could boost your wellbeing as much as being married or meeting up regularly with friends and relatives, new research suggests. The study, which was published on March 31 in the journal Social Indicators Research, concludes that having an animal companion is worth up to £70,000 ($90,000) a year in life satisfaction – a metric economists use to quantify the 'implicit price' of otherwise intangible things. That figure is roughly the same as the theoretical boost in income you would get from having a spouse or meeting up with friends and relatives regularly, researchers said, comparing their findings with other studies that have used the same statistical method. The results surprised even the researchers. 'First when I obtained the values I was surprised; I was thinking that is a lot of money even for me who loves (pets),' said Adelina Gschwandtner, an economics professor at the University of Kent, who co-authored the paper. Then, she thought, 'most people claim that their pets are like friends or family members to them, so that is comparable,' she told CNN. 'If pets are indeed like friends and family, why shouldn't that measure be comparable to talking to friends and family once a week? You have your pet every day.' Although the mental and physical health benefits of having a dog, in particular, are well known, there is more debate among scientists surrounding the overall impact of pets on their owners' wellbeing. '(It's) a little bit more complex than people think,' says Megan Mueller, an associate professor at Tufts University, who studies the relationship between people and animals and wasn't involved in this study. 'A lot of us perceive our pets as contributing to our life satisfaction but depending on how you measure that in the research it comes out different ways,' she told CNN, adding that she was unfamiliar with the specific statistical analysis Gschwandtner used in this study. In their study, Gschwandtner and her co-author Michael Gmeiner, an assistant profes sor of economics at the London School of Economics, used data collected in a long-running survey of 2,500 British households. Rather than simply comparing life satisfaction and pet ownership, which would reveal little except a correlation between the two variables, the economists then set about proving a causal link. To do this, they used a complicated statistical tool known as an instrumental variables approach. This works by finding 'a third variable which is correlated with … in our case the pets but is not correlated with life satisfaction,' Gschwandtner explained. 'And so what this variable tries to capture is potential omitted variables, potential reverse causation.' For example, the authors wrote, 'It could be that happy and healthy people decide to take a pet as a companion rather than pets making people happy and healthy.' So, in their research, they used survey data on personality types as well as pet ownership and life satisfaction, to control for this factor. If pets improve life satisfaction as much as the study suggests, Gschwandtner called on policymakers to make it easier for people to own them, for example by relaxing regulations that restrict renters' access to them. However, Mueller cautioned against 'anthropomorphizing pets too much' and equating our relationships with them to our relationships with other humans. 'There's some elements that are similar,' she said. 'And we know that social support and emotional support are really key aspects of human-pet relationships that are also the same types of support we get from our human social connections… While animals are connected to us in powerful ways, they are not the same as humans.'
The Independent
08-04-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Having a cat or dog is as good for your wellbeing as having a husband or wife, study finds
Coming through the door from a hard day's work to be greeted by the irrepressible joy of a dog bounding towards you, like they haven't seen you in years, can be as satisfying as returning to an actual human partner, according to a new study. Raising a furry companion like a cat or dog can bring you the same psychological benefits as getting married or earning an extra £70,000 a year, researchers at Kent University have found. Using the 'life satisfaction' approach, economists can translate intangible assets like friendship and family into a hypothetical income. The research conducted on 2,500 British families found that owning a pet was linked to an increase in life satisfaction of 3-4 points on a scale of 1-7, similar to values obtained for meeting with friends and relatives regularly. Economists have shown that marriage, compared to being single, is worth around £70,000 a year. Separation, on the other hand, is equivalent to around minus £170,000 a year. Dr Adelina Gschwandtner of the University of Kent, the lead author of the new study, told The Times she was inspired by a paper that put a price tag on human friendship. 'I thought, 'well, if it's possible for friends, why not for pets?'' 'I understand why some people might be sceptical [about the £70,000 value],' she said. 'Given that pets are considered by many as best friends and family members, these values appear to be plausible … I also suspect that many people don't actually realise how important their pets are for them.' Regular dog walkers are known to have better cardiovascular health, while having a feline at home can lower risk of asthma and allergic rhinitis in children exposed to pet allergens. Simply stroking our pets can lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in our bodies, leading to a calmer approach to life and thus positively impacting our blood pressure and make you less likely to suffer from clinical depression. Dr Gschwandtner added: 'This research answers the question whether overall pet companions are good for us with a resounding 'Yes'. 'Pets care for us and there is a significant monetary value associated with their companionship. This information can be used for health care practice and policy aiming to increase well-being and life satisfaction of humans involving pets.' The research follows a 2022 Pets at Home study that found more than one-quarter of people asked preferred to see their pet over their partner after a day at work.
