Do Americans Own Dogs

with Personalities that

Match their Own?
Nicole Hayes and Elizabeth Zech

Background
It is well established that people pick friends
and potential mates assortatively

Meaning they selectively choose characteristics that

are either similar or dissimilar to themselves

Turcsan, Range, Viranyi et al. (2012) found

significant, positive associations between
dog and owner personalities based on
Austrian and Hungarian participants

Hypothesis
People in the United
States will own dogs
that are similar in
personality to them
more often than would
be expected by random
chance.

Method
Administered a google survey via social
media
o

n = 291 (79 International, 212 Domestic)

Individuals answered:
o
o

37 questions about themselves based on a modified

BFI questionnaire
36 questions regarding their dog based on a
modified Dog Personality Questionnaire

Results
In the United States the
owners personality
appears to have limited to
no predictive power when
it comes to the dogs
personality

Discussion
Possibility #1: people
werent totally honest
when rating themselves
In the original study, self
reports were reinforced by
peer evaluations. This
design was prohibitive in
our case

Possibility #2
We used linear
regression
Other paper used
Pearsons Correlation
R2 may be worse at
detecting relations than
Pearsons Correlation

Possibility #3
Other paper used
subjects from
Hungary and
Austria
We looked at
Americans

Not Likely Caused By:

Number of dogs in
household
Whether respondent
was primary
caretaker

Questions?