Ever wondered why looking at pet photos makes you feel good all of a sudden? Research has shown that doing so improves your well-being. 

To test this, University of Maryland professor Dr. Jennifer Golbeck had 1,880 participants take the Patient Evaluation of Emotional Comfort Experienced (PEECE) survey. It’s a 12-item questionnaire that measures a person’s well-being. 

Each statement begins with “I feel,” followed by certain aspects that determine a person’s mood, whether it’s relaxed, in control, energized or informed. Participants then rate each feeling on a scale of 1 to 5 (lowest to highest).

Dr. Golbeck then divided the participants into two groups. One spent five minutes looking at adorable dog pictures. The other group spent the same amount of time reading tweets from US President Donald Trump. 

As Dr. Golbeck revealed in an article for Psychology Today, those who read Trump’s tweets showed a decline in their well-being score, from 3.27 before reading to 2.08 after. Conversely, those who looked at dog photos felt an improvement from 3.27 to 3.81.

But what exactly is it about photos of adorable animals that make us feel better? As science journalist Dana Smith, PhD, points out in an article for Medium, it activates both the emotion and reward circuits. This is especially true if you’re looking at photos of your own pets. 

Smith also mentioned a link between the human brain’s response to cute animals and evolution and procreation. In her article, she alluded to a study suggesting that younglings, in particular, trigger the baby schema. 

Since kittens and puppies have large eyes and small bodies that represent an infant human, we innately want to approach, care for, and protect them.

“Those traits are naturally rewarding to people,” she wrote. 

Now that you have an idea of why looking at adorable animal photos makes us feel good, we’d like to hear from you. Do you have any heartwarming pet photos to share? Drop them in the comments section!