Oxytocin has long been referred to as “the love hormone” and the “cuddle hormone,” because we (and our pets) release it when we hug, touch, or look lovingly into someone’s eyes. This increases our attachment to that person (or animal.)
The new study was led by Prof. Outi Vainio, from the University of Helsinki in Finland, and it was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
How often do you pet your dog? Gaze into its loving eyes? Smile at it? Hopefully, very often, because the more you do it, the more your dog will love you — and new research helps us to understand why.
“It seems that the hormone oxytocin influences what the dog sees and how it experiences the thing it sees,” adds doctoral student and first study author Sanni Somppi. And when that thing is your smiling face, your dog most probably loves it.
Every time you gaze lovingly into your dogs’ eyes, its levels of oxytocin — the “attachment hormone” — go up. And so do yours.
Why does petting a dog relieve stress?
If youre a dog owner, you’ll already know how soothing it is to stroke your pet.
Now university scientists have backed you up with research into the physiological effects of petting a dog.
Their study involved 249 students, who were all given 10 minutes petting and playing with dogs.
The study measured the amount of cortisol – the so-called stress hormone – in study participants saliva.
It found that cortisol levels dropped dramatically after the students had interacted with the animals – even among those who had very high or low levels to begin with.
Professor Patricia Pendry, who led the research, said: “We already knew that students enjoy interacting with animals, and that it helps them experience more positive emotions.
“What we wanted to learn was whether this exposure would help students reduce their stress in a less subjective way, which it did.
“This is exciting because the reduction of stress hormones may, over time, have significant benefits for physical and mental health.”
Oxytocin (OT) is involved in multiple social bonds, from attachment between parents and offspring to “friendships”. Dogs are an interesting species in which to investigate the link between the oxytocinergic system and social bonds since they establish preferential bonds with their own species but also with humans. Studies have shown that the oxytocinergic system may be involved in the regulation of such inter-specific relationships, with both dogs and their owners showing an increase in OT levels following socio-positive interactions. However, no direct comparison has been made in dogs’ OT reactivity following a social interaction with the owner vs. a familiar (but not bonded) person, so it is unclear whether relationship type mediates OT release during socio-positive interactions or whether the interaction per se is sufficient. Here we investigated OT reactivity in both dogs and owners, following a socio-positive interaction with each other or a familiar partner. Results showed neither the familiarity with the partner, nor the type of interaction affected OT reactivity (as measured in urine) in either dogs or owners. Given the recent mixed results on the role of oxytocin in dog-human interactions, we suggest there is a need for greater standardization of methodologies, an assessment of overall results taking into account ‘publication bias’ issues, and further studies investigating the role of relationship quality and interaction type on OT release.
The overall picture for increase in OT levels in humans after a positive interaction with a dog is also far from clear. When considering OT measured in human urine sample an increase was found after a positive social interaction with their own dog in only a subset of individuals in one study (in 13 of 55 individuals tested; [24]. Increase in OT in blood appears a bit more consistent with two studies reporting this effect in female subjects (8 out of 10 women, but none of the 10 men showed an increase in [28]; and overall in 10 females tested, no individual data provided [15]), and one reporting the effect in both men and women (N = 18, but no individual data provided [23]).
1Domestication Lab, Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Savoyenstraße 1a, A-1160 Vienna, Austria; [email protected] (A.G.); [email protected] (F.R.)
A similar issue may have caused some problems with the oxytocin measures in the human population. Indeed in other studies [24,27], participants were asked to arrive at the lab 2 h prior to testing and asked to empty their bladders one hour prior to test and spend this time quietly resting. Although we gave complete instructions to owner regarding their behaviors prior to the test, it is still possible that in our study the pre-sample still contained the influence of other ‘uncontrolled for’ factors, thereby making the pre-post treatment changes harder to detect.
1Domestication Lab, Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Savoyenstraße 1a, A-1160 Vienna, Austria; [email protected] (A.G.); [email protected] (F.R.)Find articles by
What Happens To Your Brain When You Pet a Dog? | The Dodo
We’ve already talked about how dogs can help improve depression and your overall health, but new research is showing exactly how petting a dog affects our brains, and it’s just one more way that dogs make our lives better. Here’s how petting a dog impacts your brain, along with other ways dogs improve our lives.