How Your Pet Can Influence Your Love Life

The saying "love me, love my dog" may have some basis in reality: A new study suggests that pets can influence how we perceive potential dates. Pets “add some twists and turns to our love lives," says study co-author Justin Garcia, an evolutionary biologist at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University and scientific advisor for the dating website Match.com.
 In 2014, Match.com and the retailer PetSmart surveyed about 2,300 single pet owners in the U.S. who had registered on Match.com. Of that number, 1,210 responded, 61 percent of whom were women. Sexual orientation was not questioned in the survey.
 Respondents answered questions such as: “Would you judge a date based on their reaction to your pets?” and “Have you ever used a pet to attract a potential date?”
 Garcia—along with biological anthropologists Peter Gray and Helen Fisher, chief scientific advisor for Match.com—analyzed the survey results, which appeared recently in the journal Anthrozoös.
 Single guys who own adopted dogs: congratulations. You’re Hottie McChickMagnet.
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