Study Finds Cuddling Cats Does Not Reliably Reduce Human Stress Levels
Drudge Report—A peer-reviewed study has challenged the popular belief that cat ownership and physical contact with cats reliably lowers human cortisol or stress indicators. Researchers found that stress responses during and after cat interaction were inconsistent, with some participants showing no measurable change and others showing slight increases. The findings complicate a decade of soft-science claims about pets as therapeutic stress buffers.