Dogs for Everyone?

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]