The Effects of Dog Ownership on Judgments of Dog Bite Likelihood

Of the estimated one million reported dog bites that occur annually in the United States, approximately 80% are by the victim's own dog or a neighbor's dog, while only 10% to 20% are by strays. The purpose of the present research was to determine if dog ownership, peoples' attribution of dog ownership, or peoples' interpretations of a dog's visual signals (dominant/submissive) affect judgments of bite likelihood. One hundred and twenty-five college undergraduates divided into three groups were shown 8 different slides of the “same” dog displaying different combinations of feature (4 dominant and 4 submissive) and color (4 dark and 4 light). Subject groups were instructed to assume one of three possible relationships: The dog was a stray, a neighbor's dog, or their own dog. Subjects rated each of the slides (individually presented) on “How close should I come to this dog?” and “How likely is this dog to bite me?” and answered a series of questions to determine their dog bite history. Results showed significant main effects for the ownership, assumed relationship, and feature variables for how close to come to a dog (p<.01), and a significant main effect for the relationship variable for judgments of bite likelihood (p<.01). Discussion centered on interpreting the different aspects of peoples' assumptions and misperceptions of dog behavior that may contribute to dog bites.