You probably know someone who loves pets more than humans, don’t you? Do you know the reason for this According to recent research, conducted at Northeastern University, some people appreciate and love pets more than humans.

The research has already shown that this usually happens in cases of abuse.

Arnold Arluke and Jack Levin researched to find out the reason why some people feel more compassionate to pets than to humans. While conducting the research, they focused primarily on human and animal abuse.

Namely, 240 students took part in the research, and they were asked to read a random fictional story. All fictional stories had similar content, the only difference was the victim of the story.

The results of the research showed that the participants of the study were more stressed with animal pain than with human pain.

This probably happened because they believed than humans can defend and protect themselves, whereas dogs are more vulnerable. The research also indicated that humans showed empathy if the victims could not defend themselves.

However, even though some people have a stronger relationship with their pets than with humans, it cannot be concluded that more empathy will be shown to animal abuse.

Source/photos: Animals&Society Imgur bellac43