Pet ownership and prosocial emotions: The role of mental state language

• In Event: Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Topic - Social Cognition

Abstract

Recent surveys suggest that over half (60%) of the U.S. population owns at least one pet, most commonly a dog (Applebaum et al., 2020), and that having a pet in childhood is related to a host of positive outcomes on later development (e.g., Purewal et al., 2017). Most notably, pet ownership is associated with increased empathy in both children and adults (e.g., Daley & Morton, 2006, 2009). Indeed, household pets provide opportunities for learning within emotional, cognitive, and social domains. Further, interactions with pets can allow for conversations about an emotionally salient entity that may stimulate greater curiosity and learning (Melson, 2003). Importantly, mental state and emotional language are also associated with greater empathy (Bosacki & Tardif-Williams, 2019; Aram & Shapira, 2012). This begs the question of whether greater emotional and mental state language elicited during play with a pet facilitates the development of children’s empathy and prosocial behavior. The current study is a first step towards investigating this relation.

We are recruiting a large sample of 18-35.9 month (target N=60) and 36-66-month-old children and their parents (target N=60). Dyads complete a free play session at home with an anthropomorphized object (i.e. doll), and those living with a dog complete an additional free play session with their dog. Conversations are being coded for emotional and mental state language. Older children also complete a prosocial vignette task (Weller & Lagatutta, 2013), and parents complete self-report measures of their and their child’s pet attachment, empathy, and prosocial behavior.

We predict that families living with a dog will use more emotion and mental state language during play interactions with their dog compared to play interactions with an anthropomorphized object. We predict no differences in emotional and mental state language during interactions with an anthropomorphized object between families with and without a pet. Finally, we predict that adults’ use of emotion and mental state language will predict children’s empathy in the older age group, as well as children’s prosocial behavior during the vignette task. All analyses were preregistered through Aspredicted.com prior to data collection (43820). A 2 (age: older/younger) by 2 (conversation: dog/toy) repeated measures ANOVA will be used to examine differences in language use for children living with a dog. A 2 (age: older/younger) by 2 (pet ownership: pet/no pet) repeated measures ANOVA will be used to examine differences in language use during play with an anthropomorphized object. A regression will be conducted with parent mental state and emotional language use as predictors of child empathy and prosociality. A Pearson correlation will examine relations between pet ownership and empathy and prosociality.

The results of the current research has implications for the mechanisms that drive the association between pet ownership and increased empathy cited in prior research. At the time of abstract submission, we have recruited 48 participants across the conditions and coding play sessions are actively ongoing. We are thus confident that we will complete data collection, coding, and analysis before the conference in April.

Authors

• Lori Beth Reider, Rutgers University - Newark
  Presenting Author

• Emily Kim, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elise M Mahaffey, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Vanessa Lobue, Rutgers University
  Non-Presenting Author