Meg Dayley Olmert talks oxytocin and animals
The author of ‘Made for Each Other’, Meg Daley Olmert, has given an interview to Salon magazine in which she explains her thesis that oxytocin is responsible our ability to bond with other animals. In this brief quote she explains what happens when we pat our pet cat :
Touch releases oxytocin in humans and animals. Oxytocin is one of the most powerful hormones that the body makes. This is a chemical that is responsible for social bonding.
When you pat your cat, you should be getting a release of oxytocin, as should your cat, too, that slows your heart rate down, lowers your stress response. You feel this warmth and this attachment, as does the cat. So you’re getting an emotional and a physiological anti-stress response. It’s a wonderful renewable system
Click to read the full Salon.com interview with Meg Dayley Olmert on oxytocin and our relationship with animals.