Q&A: Researcher Cori Bussolari discusses the benefits of pets during self-isolation
By Christopher Butler
Originally reported in April 2021, Bussolari is a psychologist, researcher and professor at University of San Francisco where she studies grief and the human-pet connection
Possibly one of the biggest reliefs of the COVID-19 pandemic is the fact the virus doesn’t spread through pets. Since humans are forced to stay distanced and have to spend more time alone in their homes, the phrase “man’s best friend” has become particularly accurate.
Cori Bussolari is a counseling phycologist and a professor at University of San Francisco. Her recent research outlined in the article “’I Couldn’t Have Asked for a Better Quarantine Partner!’: Experiences with Companion Dogs during Covid-19” highlighted the psychological importance of our canine counterparts. Bussolari and her team found that quarantining with a dog can be more beneficial than doing so with a human.
“I think about the way in which people’s relationships with their pets have changed,” she said. “Many people keep them in the house, they let them sleep on their bed. They treat them as a member of the family. And, you know, there’s something really important about that.”
Cori and her team’s research surveyed 4,105 adults during the first month of the initial COVID-19 lockdowns with questions such as “Do you feel that having a dog adds, reduces, or has no impact on your stress level” and “Do you feel the increased amount of time you are spending with your dog is strengthening your relationship or creating strain in the relationship?”
Their findings showed that pets lowered feelings of isolation and loneliness despite the fact that their owners were isolated. Stronger attachments between humans and dogs have also been linked to lower mental health issues.
Bussolari received a master’s in counseling psychology from University of Massachusetts Boston and her doctorate at the University of San Francisco. Since then, she’s become an expert in understanding the bonds between humans and animals, specifically in the area of pet grief.
As a side hustle, she recently released a children’s picture book titled “Empathy Is Your Superpower” to help children ages 5 to 7 understand the complex emotions of empathy and grief.
In the interview below, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discuss why pets are so important to humans, how researchers approach these challenging and dismal projects, as well as her own philosophy on death and grief.
First of all, how did this research come about? Well, I have been working with a bunch of researchers. We were working on issues related to the human-animal bond, and then COVID hit. And one of the researchers, Laurie Cogan at Colorado State, was thinking “you know why don’t we just put together something and survey people and their relationships to animals right now.” Especially given that it was the initial time of COVID. We surveyed people from March to May. People really felt that they benefited from having their dog in their house, and in many, many different ways. It was pretty powerful. I mean, we found this for dogs, we found this for cats, and it really underscored this idea that our relationships with our animals can be one of the most profound ones we have throughout our lives.
That’s so interesting, because your pets don’t even talk. Like, your relationship with your pet is such a unique relationship. Why is that so significant for humans? Because animals provide us with things that sometimes we don’t get from our human relationships. We get a sense of consistent, unconditional and non-judgmental love. They don’t ask for much [Laughs]. You know no matter what happens, they’ll always be there for you. We had people write their answers to open ended-questions, and, as you can see from the title, one of the quotes we picked was “I couldn’t have asked for a better quarantine partner.” And they really, really felt that way. We have seen that people attach to animals in similar ways that they do with humans. They look at their animals and they describe their animals as their best friend. Many people describe their animals as family members.
How did you get involved with researching bonds with pets in the first place? Well, you know, it’s interesting. When I did my dissertation years and years ago, I had just gotten a puppy. I got this puppy, and I was like in love. Like…it really felt like I was raising this puppy like it was a baby. You really do get to experience this sort of bonding with this living thing that needs you to take care of all of its needs for it. And I was really interested in this, you know? I started doing some research and started seeing that my experience was not unique. That this was something very important in the lives of people. And so, my dissertation was partially on the human-animal bond. And then, I was doing training as a pediatric psychologist and I started doing research looking at grief. So, I started doing research looking at how people grieve when their pets die.
I did notice that you do some research in grief, and specifically with pet loss. What are some of the significant things that you found in that area? That people’s grief when they lose their pets can be equal to the levels of grief they have when they lose a human. Some people feel like it’s the worst loss they’ve ever experienced. We found that people, through the loss of their pets, found meaning in many ways. Like some people found that, because of the loss of their pet, it makes them want to work with animal rescues and things like that.
Does it ever kind of take a toll on you while you’re looking into these sorts of depressing topics? [Laughs] You know, it’s such a good question. I’m a professor at USF and I teach graduate school for students who are going to become marriage and family therapists and, you know, the big question is “how do you talk about these issues and not take them on?” I have to be honest; I’ve been doing this for such a long time that I’ve really learned how to feel the feelings but not let it take over. You have to be able to do that as a clinician. Self-care is a big one. I have a lot of support, and that’s why I never do research like this on my own. I’m always doing it with a team.
I also noticed that you recently released a children’s book [Laughs] How did you know that? You do your work don’t you. — [Laughs] Yeah, I did my research. Tell me about that; the idea of writing a children’s book about this sort of topic. — I have to tell you; it was so nice to do this book. Most of the writing I do is very academic and dense. I mean, I love this article so much but it’s for a specific population to read. It’s not like all my friends will read it and be like, “I’m so excited to read this.” But this book felt like a little labor of love. I think that social-emotional learning is a really big thing right now. I mean, more schools are starting to integrate it at an early age. I think given the climate of the world, and especially our country right now, we really wanted to write a book that any adult can use with a child. And I think that empathy, this idea of being able to put yourself in somebody else’s shoes, is such an important skill for kids right now.
I feel like a lot of people have to go through the death of a pet first, and that is kind of their first exposure to grief. So it’s interesting that that is the topic you study because it’s almost formative for people, it’s kind of like an introduction to grief. Yep, it’s an introduction. When you think about it, death is universal. It really is that thing that is going to happen whether you like it or not. Every carbon being in this universe is going to die at some time. But as a society, we push it away, we vilify it. It’s been very medicalized. You know, people are like “death is over there,” [Gestures]. You don’t see it. It doesn’t happen in front of you. But this understanding that death is inevitable, actually, ironically, gives us the opportunity to really live in the moment in ways in which many people aren’t.
And that’s sort of what you found in your research, right? Absolutely. Pets helped people feel like they could, you know, be in the moment. And this was consistent for both dogs and cats, was this feeling of gratitude, like a real, real, real feeling of gratitude that their animals were around during this time. That’s a really important positive emotion — that increased gratitude in research has shown to relate to lower levels of depression.