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This chart shook me: in the latest General Social Survey, dog owners are *twice as likely* as cat owners to say they are "very happy." washingtonpost.com/business/2019/… 
In the survey, the happiness difference between dog and cat owners is the same magnitude as the happiness difference between upper- and middle-class people washingtonpost.com/business/2019/…
Other research on this has been mixed: a 2006 Pew survey found no happiness difference, although it didn't distinguish between people who owned *only* a dog or cat and those who owned both. More recent study found a happiness advantage for dog owners, but not as large.
Part of it is that dog people are fundamentally different from cat people in certain ways: dog owners more likely to be married, to own rather than rent, probably higher income, lots of other factors that affect happiness. washingtonpost.com/business/2019/…
But there's a causal effect too: dogs make you go outside, be active and meet people, all of which make you happier. The survey also shows dog owners are more likely to seek comfort from their pets, play with them, and consider them members of the family. washingtonpost.com/business/2019/…
Finally, the survey asks about in-the-moment "happiness," rather than overall life satisfaction, which is a bigger, longer-term question. I'm dying to see how pet ownership overlaps with the latter. washingtonpost.com/business/2019/…
Final note: as the proud owner of three cats, a beagle-basset mix, a rabbit, and a lizard, you will find nobody as aggressively non-partisan on this issue as me.
cats do rule tho
cats do rule tho
