New research shows that, in addition to being man’s best friend, dogs improve productivity in the office. Christopher Honts and coauthors gave 12 groups of four people a task to complete; some groups had a dog hanging around while they worked, while others didn’t: “After the task, all the volunteers had to answer a questionnaire on how they felt about working with the other-human-members of the team. Mr. Honts found that those who had had a dog to slobber and pounce on them ranked their team-mates more highly on measures of trust, team cohesion and intimacy than those who had not.” Honts also asked 13 groups of people to play a version of the prisoner’s dilemma game and found that “[h]aving a dog around made volunteers 30% less likely to snitch than those who played without one.” Perhaps Congress should invest in some canine companions? [%comments]
Dogs for Everyone?
TAGS: animals, psychology
and 
. You can also watch it on 
Does this apply for robot dogs as well? Robots need love too…
Not everyone can bring a dog to work, and I am blessed and privileged. He is a psychological crutch, an easy listener and an ice breaker to social gatherings. I have to make time for a lunch and afternoon walk and bladder break. But the theoretical financial salary trade off for me would be $7500-10,000.
I think everyone should aspire to have a dog companion at work, just as Batman needs his Robin.
I want to add that cats subtract productivity from the workplace. When you add walking across the keyboard to standing…wanting to be stroked…in front of the computer monitor…to rubbing against my ankles wanting to be let out….or get stroked, or SOMETHING…. make it two hours a day in lost productivity. Then she wants in and out and in and out and in and out. Finally she wants in and I can’t remember letting her out.
I ‘m late for my meeting. Gotta go.
12 groups of 4. Awesome study.
The 6 year olds that they had in the focus group also thought that the golden retrievers were “smiling.”
It’s not that I don’t like your dog. It’s that I think you two are equally productive in the office.
Did they account for biases like dog-person vs. cat-person in this study?
At my office, a executive used to bring in her dog on some days. Then the dog left a big smelly gift in front of a senior executive’s office; which the intern had to clean up. We didn’t see that dog any more after that…
Here’s a theory — When I work at home with the dog hanging around, I tend to stay in my chair and be more focused than I am other times. Why? Because everytime I scoot around or stand up, she jumps up thinking it’s time to go outside. So, rather than disturbing the dog and having her stand staring at me and wagging her tail for 10 minutes, I sit still and focus.
I’d be curious what type of dogs were used… Personality and breed/size is a huge factor in my book.
Think mean pit bull vs mellow golden
What about kitty cats?