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Most people love animals. Whenever you meet a person, you can be sure that they either have a pet or want one. Other people love animals so much, they dedicate a huge part of their lives to protecting and saving them. Now scientists from the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute and Scotland’s Rural College say that compassion for animals may be genetic.
People’s affection to animals can be genetic. Image credit: Wikimedia
Scientists analysed DNA from 161 student volunteers and found that there is a genetic difference in people who show greater compassion for animals. As well as analysing DNA samples of the participants of the study, scientists also asked them to fill a questionnaire, which dug into their relation to animals. Scientists found that those students who actually loved animals had a specific version of the gene that produced oxytocin – that was a distinctive difference. Oxytocin, by the way, is commonly known as a love hormone and is responsible for social bonding between people. This is the first study ever to link oxytocin to relationships between people and animals.
In short, oxytocin boosts empathy between humans, which is a huge part of normal social relations. However, relations between humans and animals are not entirely social. We belong to different species and although we consider pets out friends, in actual reality human friendships are different both in their function and structure. That is the reason why scientists never knew oxytocin would play any part in bonding with animals as well. In fact, it may partially explain why some people have more affection to animals and others do not respond to them so positively.
Scientists found that women have more affection for animals than men do. Also, unsurprisingly, those who work in jobs related to animal care, like animals more than those who do not. Usually these attitudes are formed by life experiences, personality traits and even religious beliefs. However, now scientists can confirm that genetics play a role as well. Professor Alistair Lawrence, one of the authors of the study, said: “This research is only the beginning but we hope that these findings could help us to devise strategies to help improve animal welfare across the UK”. But do you know what that says about people who love animals?
Since oxytocin boosts empathy between humans and makes people like animals more, we can say that animal lovers are typically friendlier people. Of course, love hormone is not the only factor that is important in determining personality traits of a person. But it seems like animal lover simply have more empathy.
Source: University of Edinburgh