It's Monday, April 22nd, 2019, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds. I'm Indravis Gontas.

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There's a Washington Post article entitled, Dog Owners Are Much Happier than Cat Owners, Survey Finds.

That's making the rounds on social media.

So what gives are dog owners actually happier?

And if that's the case, why?

Well, the article profiles a general social survey that came out in

2018 that for the first time included a battery of questions about pet ownership. It turns out

about 60% of households have at least one pet. And if you only have a dog, you're 36% likely to say that you are very happy.

Compared with someone who has no pets, people who have no pets, 32% of them describe themselves

as being very happy. So that's not a big difference, probably not even a significant one.

But if you only have a cat, only 18% of you households with a cat

only report being very happy. And so the distinction between people who are dog only and cat only

seems to be one of happiness, or at least self-reported happiness. And if you have both a dog and a cat,

they seem to cancel each other out in that about 28% of households who have a dog and a cat

would say that they are very happy. The post article underscores that these differences are actually

quite large. In fact, this distinction in happiness ratings between dog-only owners and

cat-only owners is about the same as those who identify as middle versus upper class. And as the

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