What being a cat- or dog-person says about you
Still, research like this isn’t perfect. “Most of us are doing research on a limited budget, and we are doing survey research,” says Delgado. Ideally, research is conducted with balanced populations of people who are compensated for their participation. In this case, she says “the people who are likely to fill out a survey, especially a long survey, about their pets are going to fit a certain demographic.
What’s more, Delgado says, the pet industry is a huge funder of this research, which naturally shapes the kind of work that gets done. Research that’s more likely to make pet ownership seem appealing—for instance, associating certain personality traits with certain kinds of pets—supports the sale of animals and animal products.
, can affect whether someone says they prefer cats or dogs. The other big thing that hasn’t been studied, Delgado says, is what makes people who like pets at all different from those who don’t like or want pets. For all we know, that difference could be much more fundamental and complex.