Many people, especially those with strong and highly reactive emotions, want and would benefit from interactions with cats to reduce stress, according to a new study.
Universities implementing animal-assisted interventions like “Pet Your Stress Away” events have proven benefits, but more than 85% of them only include dogs, according to researchers. The new paper found a high level of interest in adding cats to the mix.
The study found that several factors shaped a positive response to a cat visitation program and revealed that the personality trait of emotionality played an important role.
Emotionality, part of a well-established psychology model called the Big Five personality traits, indicates a person has strong emotions and is highly reactive to them….