Abstract
Two lists of human personality-trait descriptors (386 descriptors in List A and 382 descriptors in List B) were judged by university students (n=230 for List A, and n=138 for List B). The data were summarized in terms of the “acceptance score” of each descriptor, which is the percentage of students who agreed that the descriptor was suitable for describing dog personalities. As expected, descriptors for language or complex mental mechanisms had low scores. The characteristics of the judges (e.g., their age and affection for dogs) had no effects on anthropomorphism reflected in the percentage of descriptors admitted for describing dog personalities. Furthermore, we conducted a personality questionnaire consisting of descriptors with an acceptance score of 70% or more. With this questionnaire, another group of university students (n=325) and dog owners (n=217) were requested to assess their friends (a friend per student) and dogs (a dog per owner), respectively. Factor analyses of these two sets of data revealed a similar “Big-Five” personality structures in humans and dogs.
