How many times a day do we talk to our dog or cat without even realizing it? According to a study published in *Frontiers in Psychiatry*, on average , 9.2% of all the time we spend talking—to anyone, including people—is devoted to our pets.
A tool created to fill a gap
The University of Arizona team, led by Dara Jonkoski and Emily Bray, has developed AURAL-Pet (Audio-based Understanding of Relational Animal-directed Language), the first coding system designed to analyze language directed at animals in a standardized way. Until now, this is exactly what was missing: an objective method for understanding how people talk to their pets in real life.
To collect the data, the researchers used the EAR (Electronically Activated Recorder), an app that records short audio clips at random times throughout the day, without the wearer knowing when the recording is triggered. This was a deliberate choice: people who know they are being listened to tend to unconsciously alter their behavior. Here, however, the participants were not even aware of the actual purpose of the study.
The result is a database of 5,072 audio clips collected from 240 people who participated in four different research projects on topics that had nothing to do with pets, ranging from aging to meditation, from couples coping with breast cancer to those who have gone through a separation.
No two people speak the same way
By applying the coding system to all these recordings, the authors discovered enormous variability from person to person. Some people use an affectionate nickname every time they address their pet, while others never do. Some treat their dog or cat as a real conversation partner, telling them about their day or their future plans, while others limit themselves to basic commands or short questions. Some participants exhibited certain behaviors in every single available clip, while others never did.
“Many people are convinced that a pet makes a difference in their lives, yet scientific studies continue to yield conflicting results on the so-called ‘pet effect,’” explains Emily Bray, one of the study’s lead authors. “We needed objective data on what people actually say and how they interact with their pets to begin to understand why.”
Solving a Scientific Puzzle
For years, studies ontheso-called“pet effect”—the idea that owning a pet automatically improves mental health—have remained contradictory: some link pet ownership to reduced loneliness and depression, while others find no measurable effect. The authors’ hypothesis is that what makes the difference is not simply the fact of having a pet, but the quality and depth of daily interaction with it.
The tool will now be applied to a new project, the CARE study, which focuses on the mental well-being of people over 60, to determine whether and how interactions with dogs and cats help reduce social isolation, stress, and symptoms of depression in older adults. Bray hypothesizes that animals can act as true social catalysts, capable of sparking human interactions that otherwise would not occur.
This is no small matter, at a time when loneliness among older adults is already considered a public health issue. Understanding which communication styles with animals produce real benefits—and which do not—could transform the way doctors, psychologists, and social services view pet ownership, treating it as a relationship worthy of close examination.
