"In a paper to be published later this year in the journal Anthrozoös, Sam Gosling finds that those who define themselves as "dog people" are more extraverted, more agreeable and more conscientious than self-described "cat people."
Fans of felines, on the other hand, are more neurotic but also more open than their canine-loving counterparts."
This doesn't surprise me at all, but then again I like dogs a lot more than cats. (T-shirt: "I like cats, I just can't eat one all by myself.")
There is the issue of causation vs. selection here. Does having a cat make you neurotic or do neurotic people buy cats? Also, what happens to people who have both a cat and a dog. Do they get the best of both? The worst of both?
For me being around cats predicts being very anti-social, but that's just because I'm in the bathroom blowing my nose and washing my face trying to undo an allergic reaction.
BTW, as I write this, Attila is jumping on me, loving on me--giving evidence for causation.
2 comments:
I am not sure how to respond to this blog. For 62 years I did not have a pet because of allergies. My second wife brought to cats with her from Florida. The second cat attached herself to me. Will follow me around the house, rub up against me to be petted and will jump onto my lap to be loved on. If I reading a book or the newspaper, she will push her way onto my chest and I think I hear her saying pet me old man.
As for me I would never say that I am neurotic, crazy yes, but not neurotic. I vacillate between being an introvert and an extrovert, according to the different times of taken the Myers-Briggs.
In the six years this cat has come into my life, I willing state that I am now a cat person.
My son on the other hand has two dogs and two cats. He informed me that when the cats die, he will not replace them. He is definitely a dog person and an extrovert.
Jack Wilson
Thanks for your comments, Jack. I'm allergic to cats as well, and sure enough, whenever I'm in a house with cats, they'll find me.
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