Can You Guess That Breed?
I’m not talking about the fun game on Dogster where you try and guess what breed a dog is by looking at a picture. Can you guess what breed of dog a person might own by looking at them? According to one study the results show it’s possible.
A group of 70 people who do not own dogs were asked to match photos of 41 dog owners to three possible breeds – Labrador, poodle or Staffordshire bull terrier. They matched the owners to the dogs more than half the time. Yet given three choices, they should have been right only about a third of the time.
“This suggests that certain breeds of dogs are associated with particular kinds of people,” said study leader Lance Workman, a psychologist at Bath Spa University in the UK.
The analysis runs deep: Those who don’t own dogs used stereotypes to match the dogs to their owners, Workman figures. “These stereotypes persisted into judgments of the dog owners’ personalities: non dog owners considered the owners of each breed to share certain personality traits, such as level of conscientiousness and emotional stability.”
The real connection is only skin deep, however.
“But when we tested the dog owners’ personalities, we found no strong links between any particular personality trait and choice of dog breed, so any shared qualities are only skin deep,” Workman said.
The findings were presented at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference in Brighton. What do you think about the study? Do you think some people look like their dogs? Give me a bark.
* In memory of Bo’s friend Bull Boy who left us too soon on March 28, 2009.
I think that a dog can say a lot, and I mean A LOT about it’s owner, but by just looking at a dog owner without seeing the dog isn’t a good way to tell what kind of dog they own. I think I look like my Koda, however, in terms of personality, we are very different. (ex- I am quiet and calm while Koda is hyper and excitable) I’ve seen a huge, muscular man in all black with spiked studs and army boots walking a shih-tzu once. This is a very interesting study that will call for a lot of opinions, I look forward to seeing more of this!
thank you bo…
my family thanks you for honoring our sweet bull-boy
Given that I”m 5 feet tall and fairly girly, I wonder if they would know that I’m a chihuahua owner?
That would be the easy one I suppose, but I know they wouldn’t guess that we also have an Italian Greyhound/Jack Russell mix
http://blog.pawshpal.com/2009/04/04/like-pet-like-owner/
We miss Bull Boy, too. Thank you for mentioning him.
Well, I have long suspected that our mom has something like multiple personalities and this article proves it!
In our house there are several lab mixes, a JRT cross and a basset hound. (not to mention the cats & rabbits) What does that say about her?!
Well, she does do rescue work, but still…I have my theories.
Sancho
LOL, we have 3 dachshunds, a Siberian Husky, a Lab, a Chow and Sheltie mix and a pit bull. Sancho, Mom doesn’t’ do rescue they all are part of the family all but me came needing a forever home. Then we got the 6 cats. I think 3 snakes, 4 rats (can you believe she had them neutered?) a bird a gecko. I think I got them all. Mom must really be mixed up.
Do ya think, she may be Sybil?
Hmmmm…where does a person who owns opposite ends on the size spectrum fit in? A shih tzu, a yorkie, and a St. Bernard. Speaking of multiple personalities……