Having gotten my hands dirty in the mythbusting business for a number of years,
it's long struck me that there are two rather different types of myths that are
often not clearly distinguished. We might call one type "ontological myths"
(admittedly, I"m just making up the name; there are probably better names) -
myths about the nature of reality (i.e., "Claim X is not true"), whereas others
are closer to "epistemic myths" - myths about our knowledge of the nature of
reality (i.e., "The Claim that X is well established is not true"). The myth
about the physical and psychological health benefits of pets would seem to fall
into the latter category: I agree with Jim Clark that the evidence here isn't
conclusive (largely because most of the evidence is
correlational/quasi-experimental), but it seems clear that the anecdotal claims
of pet owners greatly outstrip the strength of the evidence. Herzog (author of
the column) would appear to hold the same view, if I'm understanding his
position correctly.
Thanks to Stephen Black for noting the unsolicited endorsement in Herzog's
piece, although most of the credit goes to my Emory colleague Lori Marino.
...Scott
________________________________________
From: Jim Clark [[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2011 12:17 AM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: Re: [tips] Healing power of pets?
Hi
Some cautionary notes about calling this a myth?
1. Although not clear from the article, presumably much of the research is
nonexperimental in nature. One should be cautious about causal conclusions
whether results are positive (benefits of pets) or negative (no benefits of
pets). Not hard to imagine, for example, that people who acquire pets might be
less well off if they had not done so, because of some selection bias.
2. As one comment noted, randomly assigning pets to some people is hardly the
prototypical way that pets come into people's lives, raising questions about
the generalizability of the results to more natural acquisition of pets.
Random assignment, however, would be more characteristic of "therapeutic" use
of pets.
3. A very large percentage of people (at least in USA) appear to have pets of
one kind or another ... see
http://www.avma.org/reference/marketstats/ownership.asp
What motivates this behavior and the cost if not some benefit? Although the
benefits need not be limited to physical well-being (i.e., health), of course.
4. If the people who commented on the article are representative of these many
pet-owners, we certainly have a striking example of contrast between
science-based conclusions and anecdotal evidence. Virtually all comments
espoused the benefits of pets for mental and physical well-being.
5. How many other "popular" human activities would stand up to rigorous
scientific scrutiny? getting married? having children? ...
Take care
Jim
James M. Clark
Professor of Psychology
204-786-9757
204-774-4134 Fax
[email protected]
>>> <[email protected]> 04-Jan-11 10:35:23 PM >>>
Not so much.
One more for the annals of psychological myth.
See http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/opinion/04herzog.html
And if you're observant, you'll notice a reference to the work of a
well-known TIPster, although regrettably unnamed in the article.
Stephen
--------------------------------------------
Stephen L. Black, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, Emeritus
Bishop's University
Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
e-mail: sblack at ubishops.ca
---------------------------------------------
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