Empathy is a defining human trait, yet we often find ourselves feeling more compassion toward dogs than toward other people. This emotional preference may seem surprising, but it reflects deep psychological and cultural roots.
From their loyalty and innocence to their ability to express emotion without words, dogs evoke a purer, simpler form of empathy that humans rarely inspire in each other. We will explore the reasons behind our stronger emotional bond with dogs compared to our own kind.
Scientific Evidence
A 2017 study found that people with higher emotional-empathy scores interpreted the facial expressions of pet dogs more quickly and intensely than those of unfamiliar humans.
Another investigation revealed that when participants were given fictitious news-stories about an adult human, a human infant, a puppy or an adult dog suffering a violent attack.
The adult human victim elicited significantly less empathic distress than either the puppy or the adult dog—while the infant still topped the empathy scale.
These studies point to a real measurable difference in how we emotionally respond to dogs compared with many fellow humans.
Perceived Vulnerability
One major explanation emerging from the research is that dogs are frequently perceived as more vulnerable, more dependent, and less responsible for their circumstances than human adults.
In the study above, researchers attributed the stronger empathy toward dogs to the fact that participants viewed adult dogs similarly to children—dependent, unable to easily change their situation, and so eliciting a protective response.
This perceived helplessness taps into the affective side of empathy—feeling concern for another’s plight—and may explain part of why dogs evoke such strong responses.
Anthropomorphic Vulnerability and Its Role in Empathy
Another strand of research shows that many of us form deeply personal attachments to dogs that resemble familial bonds.
A survey of 263 adult dog-owners in Korea found that attachment to dogs significantly correlated with both cognitive and affective empathy, and that these forms of empathy partly mediated the relationship between dog-attachment and human quality of life.
This suggests that when a dog is seen not just as a pet but as a “member of the family,” our emotional investment increases—and with it our empathic sensitivity.
Such attachment fosters anthropomorphic perceptions—attributing human-like mental states, feelings and rights to dogs—that further amplify empathy.
Neuro-Cognitive and Evolutionary Underpinnings
Beyond psychology, neuroscientific and evolutionary accounts help explain why dogs elicit empathy so strongly.
Humans are particularly attuned to faces, gaze, vocalizations and biological motion that resemble our own species, and dogs (domesticated for thousands of years) engage in many of these cues in human-compatible ways.
A narrative review argues that mammals like dogs are those for whom humans more easily attribute minds and feelings, partly because of shared neuro-endocrine systems (including oxytocin) and recognizable emotional signaling.
Thus a combination of shared biology and evolutionary domestication helps make dogs especially effective recipients of our empathic attention.
Contextual and Cognitive Load Factors
Research also highlights that the context of empathy—choice, effort, and competing demands—matters.
A 2022 study published in The Journal of Social Psychology (Cameron et al.) found that when participants could choose whether to engage in empathy for a human or animal without explicit competition, they more often opted to share the feelings of the animal.
This suggests that empathizing with humans may feel more cognitively or morally complex: humans are seen as more agentic, more responsible, more capable of change.
Dogs, by contrast, are viewed more simply as beings to whom care can be offered without moral judgment.
The relative simplicity of empathizing with a dog may reduce cognitive or emotional barriers, making it “easier” in some sense to feel for them.
Implications and Caveats
The fact that we may feel more empathy toward dogs than certain humans has both positive and challenging implications. On the positive side, this high empathy toward dogs can motivate care, protection and improved well-being for animals.
On the other hand, it may reveal inconsistent empathy patterns: humans in distress—especially adults or strangers—may receive less emotional resonance, partly because of perceived agency or responsibility.
Some of the studies caution that context matters: when empathy for humans and animals are set in competition or sacrificing one for the other, people often choose humans.
Thus the empathy advantage for dogs is not absolute—but strong in many contexts where dogs are clearly vulnerable and non-agentic.
