Overview
- The peer-reviewed study from The Open University in the Netherlands, published June 16, 2026 in Frontiers in Psychology, used ecological momentary assessment to collect nearly 8,000 moment-to-moment reports from 188 pet owners.
- Overall, brief interactions with cats or dogs were linked to higher positive emotions and lower negative emotions during everyday moments.
- Interacting with a pet did not reduce the immediate negative impact of reported stress, countering the idea that pets act as momentary stress buffers.
- The team observed a tentative finding that higher-intensity interactions with cats during stressful moments sometimes coincided with stronger negative feelings in owners, but that result was inconsistent and the cat-owner subgroup was smaller.
- Authors say the mood lift may come from companionship or connectedness rather than stress reduction, they caution owners not to expect instant stress relief from pet contact, and they call for larger, more detailed studies to test mechanisms and replicate species-specific patterns.