How did you get interested in studying the topic of your paper in Current Directions in Psychological Science: The link between companion dogs, human fertility rates, and social networks?
I’ve been studying dog behavior and cognition for more than 30 years in Budapest, in the Family Dog Project research group at the ELTE Eötvös Loránd University. Approximately ten years ago, during a survey, I asked dog owners on social media, interested in canine research, how much they agreed with the statement: "My dog is more important to me than anyone else." To my great surprise, 66% of respondents, including parents, at least partly agreed. At the time, I was studying ageing in dogs, and I had many experiences where I could directly observe just how emotionally important dogs are to people—often more important than anyone else in their lives. I wanted to understand why that is.
What are the study’s main findings?
