The Impacts of the Presence of an Unfamiliar Dog on Emerging Adults’ Physiological and Behavioral Responses Following Social Exclusion

Abstract

Research indicates that non-human attachment figures may mitigate the negative consequences of social exclusion. In the current experiment, we examined how the presence of an unfamiliar companion dog in the laboratory effects physiological and behavioral reactions in female emerging adults after social exclusion compared to inclusion. Results revealed the beneficial effects of the dog: Socially excluded participants in the company of a dog showed less aggressive behavior in response to the hot sauce paradigm compared to excluded participants in the control condition. Furthermore, cardiac responses indicated mitigated perception of threat in a subsequent insult episode when a dog was present. The presence of a dog did not impact the most instantaneous, “reflexive” response to the social exclusion as revealed by characteristic cardiac changes. Together, the findings indicate that the presence of a companion dog takes effect in a later, reflective period following a social exclusion experience, which implicates relevant social elaboration and appraisal processes.

Social exclusion increases antisocial tendencies: Evidence from retaliatory ideation in a malevolent creativity task.

“…A realistic protocol was used for exclusion or inclusion manipulation, in which participants were excluded (vs. included) by alleged peers on basis of their personal traits and preferences (Papousek et al, 2020; Reiter-Scheidl et al, 2018). As a cover story for the experiment, participants were told that they may participate in a follow up study, giving them the opportunity to socialize with new people during an all-paid cinema visit.…”

The Effect of Mental Activation of One’s Pet Dog on Stress Reactivity

“…Future studies could specifically recruit participants who self-report high feelings of emotional support from their dogs to limit this variability or could examine how variability in pet-derived emotional support may be related to subjective and objective measures of stress reactivity in a general population, Results lend evidence towards the possibility that the physical presence of a dog may be required to elicit a significant stress-reducing effect. Indeed, several studies have found significant stress-buffering effects of dog presence via reduced heart rate [19,23],…”

“…Indeed, studies have found that the presence of a friendly dog reduces self-reported and cardiovascular measures of stress reactivity during a stressful procedure compared to when alone [19][20][21] or accompanied by a stuffed animal [22,23]. Other studies have also found that both the presence of one's own dog or an unfamiliar friendly dog can lead to lower stress reactivity during an experimental stress paradigm than when accompanied by a form of human social support, such as a parent [24], a friendly adult [25,26], or a friend [27].…”

Paws, Trends, and Family Bonds: The Dog Keeping Cultural Runaway Theory

“…This "pet effect" (59) results in better sleep, more frequent exercise (60,61), improved mood (61) and self-esteem (Rodriguez, Greer, et al, 2020a;Schulz et al, 2020), less loneliness (64), a lower risk of cardiovascular disease ( 65), a higher survival rate after a heart attack (66)(67)(68), includes fewer visits to the doctor (69), and, most recently, social support during (COVID) lockdowns (70)(71)(72)(73). The proposed mechanisms of conveying benefits are (non-judgemental) social support (74) (i.e., "unconditional love"), stress reduction, physical contact, and encouragement toward physical activity (75), which might be important in animalassisted activities/therapies/interventions (76,77), too. Attitudes toward the dog seem to be related to the benefits.…”