PERCEPTION OF ANIMALS AND CARDIOVASCULAR-RESPONSES DURING VERBALIZATION WITH AN ANIMAL PRESENT

The presence of animals has been associated with decreased physiologic al responses to stressors. Not all individuals respond equally to the presence of friendly animals. The current study was designed to examin e whether attitudes toward animals are related to individuals' physiol ogical responses when an animal is present. The relationship of indivi duals' perceptions of animals to their blood pressure and heart ra te responses during verbalization in the presence of a dog were examined among urban college students (n = 218). Lockwood's projective Animal T hematic Apperception Test (ATAT) was used to assess subjects' attitude s toward animals and people in scenes containing animals and identical scenes without animals. The significant period by perception interact ions in analyses of variance with repeated measures revealed that card iovascular responses to verbalization with animal present were signifi cantly lower for individuals who perceived scenes with animals more po sitively than for individuals who perceived scenes with animals presen t less positively. Cardiovascular responses when the dog was present w ere not related to perceptions of scenes without animals present. The differences in cardiovascular responses depended upon the scenes used. This study supports the view that how people perceive animals moderat es their physiological responses to stressors when an animal is presen t.