Here is Why We Empathize More With Dogs Than People

“I don’t care who dies in a movie as long as the dog lives.”

Imagine you are watching a movie and there is a scene of a dog and it’s owner in a middle of a gunfire. Let’s be honest, you are more concerned about the dog, right?

Well, according to the recent study conducted at Northeastern University of Boston and the University of Colorado Boulder, plenty of people find dogs a lot easier to love than humans and the authors attempt to explain why.

The study gathered 256 undergraduate students together and presented them with fake news reports of attacks on a 1 year old baby, a 30 year old adult, a puppy, and a 6 year old dog. The idea was that the more vulnerable a victim was, the more empathy the subjects would show. As it turned out, the levels of empathy reported for the baby, the puppy, and the dog were same; the adult victim was empathized, but with significantly a lesser degree.

“In addition, female participants were significantly more empathic toward all victims than were their male counterparts,” wrote the authors in their study.

According to the study, the authors explained why we feel this way towards dogs. It’s because we see dogs, especially puppies as we see kids and babies. They are vulnerable as kids and unable to protect themselves. Simply we see dogs as our “fur babies”.