It’s a battle as old as time. Or at least as old as about 26 to 35 million years ago when felines and canines first evolved. Cats and dogs duking it out for who is the best human companion. That debate has spilled over to humans, with research showing that dog owners are more often considered more social and community-oriented, while cat owners are believed to be more introverted and open-minded.
However, “cat people” appear to be more generous when it comes to raising money for charity. A study recently published in the journal Anthrozoös, found that cat owners donate slightly more than dog owners, and donate more often and to a variety of causes. Despite this divide, pet owners in general do tend to donate the most.
In the study, a reasearcher from Dartmouth College studied data from cloud-computing management company Snowflake on roughly 63 million donors and 788 million transactions. In total, this added up to nearly $70 billion between 2013 and 2022. They looked at donation amounts between $20 and $100,000 and their frequency, along with the other demographics including age, gender, income, and education.
They then imported the data into a machine learning model called CatBoost, which stands for categorical boosting, to analyze the data on donors.
Donations by Pet Ownership (2013–2022)
| Pet Owner Type | Total Donations (2013–2022) | Donation Frequency (2013–2022) |
|---|---|---|
| No pets | $1,060 | 11 |
| Cat owners | $780 | 15 |
| Dog owners | $700 | 13 |
| Both cat and dog owners | $630 | 14 |
The model showed that cat owners donated about $80 more than dog owners and with slightly more frequency. Prior psychological research has shown that openness is frequently correlated with higher levels of giving. If some cat owners are more open or more prone to worry than dog owners, these personality traits could explain why cat people donated more money more frequently.
“My research shows how pet ownership reflects complex personality differences, even when it comes to philanthropy,” study author and social scientist Herbert Chang said in a statement. “They’re not huge divergences, but they are meaningful and reflect everyday intuitions toward dog and cat owners.”
According to Chang, this kind of data on the differences in donation behavior could be useful for marketers trying to reach target audiences. And it gives cat owners another chance to defy stereotypes.
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