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Psychologists studied pet owners and published research that shows “pet owners had greater self-esteem, were more physically fit, tended to be less lonely, were more conscientious, were more extraverted, tended to be less fearful and tended to be less preoccupied than non-owners,” reports the Houston Chronicle. The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The Chronicle quoted a passage from the report:

The present study establishes that there are many positive consequences for everyday people who own pets. As our understanding of the psychological processes underlying perceptions of pets grows, the present work provides valuable insights for the meaningful social support that pets provide for their owners and the attendant benefits these ubiquitous and consequential relation-ships generate.

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