The domestication of animals has been a theme throughout human history for a variety of practical reasons ranging from pest control to physical protection, but advancements in the global quality of life over the past few centuries have rendered these reasons outdated. Nevertheless, a remarkable number of contemporary households continue to take on the financial and temporal responsibilities that having a pet entails. A significant amount of research has been focused on the psychological and physiological benefits of pet ownership as well as on the potential correlations between recovery from a mental illness such as post-traumatic stress disorder and having a pet. The present study focuses on the relationship between personality and attachment to one’s pet as one piece of that larger set of questions. The International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) was used to measure the “big 5” dimensions of personality, and a modified version of the Miller-Rada Commitment to Pets Scale was used to measure the nature and intensity of pet attachment. A sample of 132 participants completed both tests via online administration. I will present and discuss the correlations found between the personality traits as revealed by the IPIP and pet attachment.
