Looking to fill up your social calendar? Consider getting a dog. Two new studies in the British Journal of Psychology suggest that dogs help increase their owners' interaction with others, making them more happy overall.
In the first study, a woman walking a dog through her daily routine recorded the number and quality of interactions she had with others. The results showed that the woman interacted with significantly more people than normal when accompanied by a dog, and particularly by more strangers.
To test how the physical appearance of the dog and owner affected the number of interactions, the researchers studied a man dressed in either a suit or torn jeans while walking a dog wearing either a matching collar and leash or a studded collar and frayed rope. The dog's appearance had little effect, but the man interacted with others 790 percent more than usual when wearing jeans and 1,000 percent more when wearing a suit.
