Does your day-to-day life leave you feeling overwhelmed? An experiment on a group of university students shows that interacting with animals may be a stress reducer that’s worth the investment.
Since college comes with its own unique set of challenges, stress is a common shared emotion among students.
Demanding classes, burnout, financial struggles and social struggles are just a few of the many stressors students experience in college.
According to the 2025 yearly report by UnitedHealthcare, 63% of college students self-reported that they have struggled with stress and anxiety. Based on this report, a majority of college students’ mental health is affected by the hurdles they are forced to face in college.
To combat the rising stress levels, some colleges are turning to animals for help. Specifically, they are implementing Animal Visitation Programs (AVPs) on campuses around the country. AVPs are programs that bring animals to campus so that students can interact with them on campus throughout the day.
In fact, during finals week at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the Edith Garland Dupré Library brings in animals for students to visit. This past year, a variety of dogs and even a mini horse were available for students to interact with.
Having animals on campus comes with real benefits. A recent scientific theory is that physical interaction with animals reduces the amount of cortisol, which in turn lowers stress. With this in mind, an experiment was conducted with college students to determine the validity of this hypothesis.
A study written by Patrica Pendry and Jaymie Vandagriff investigates how AVPs can impact students’ mental health. In their article, the authors examine the entire process of the experiment as well as its findings.
In the experiment, stress levels of randomized groups of college students were observed after visiting an AVP that their college provided to discover its effectiveness. The length of the experiment spanned the course of three semesters. When it was completed, the measurements of each group were compared to determine if AVPs can legitimately reduce stress.
Cortisol is a hormone in the body that is directly linked to stress. Furthermore, stress levels can be measured by the amount of cortisol measured in the body.
Thus, cortisol levels were taken from the saliva of four different groups of students. One group interacted with the animals for over 10 minutes. At the same time, the second group, whose levels were recorded, was watching the first group from the line. The people in this group were not allowed to interact with the animals.
The third group looked at still pictures of the same AVP animals. Finally, the last group of students who were a part of the experiment did not have any physical or visual exposure to the AVP animals.
All of the participants’ cortisol levels were collected before and after the experiment to measure any changes after exposure.
AVP animals can range anywhere from house pets to trained therapy dogs. Also, although dogs are the most common type of AVP animals, cats can be involved with the programs as well.
The AVP animals that were part of the experiment were a mix of cats and dogs from the Humane Society. To make sure the results from the animals are reliable, all of the animals were exposed to the same conditions before and during the experiment.
To ensure the accuracy of the results within the groups, the scientists running the project made sure that each group started with similar cortisol levels. Additionally, all the different variables of each group were taken into account when comparing post-cortisol levels.
The results revealed that the waiting, slideshow and observation group participants’ end cortisol levels were higher than those who physically interacted with the AVP animals. Moreover, those who did interact with the animals had the most change in their cortisol levels compared to the other groups.
The groups that did not interact with the animals still experienced a decrease in cortisol, but it was not as significant as the hands-on group.
The experiment results establish solid evidence that animals do affect the cortisol levels in people and back up the theory that animals reduce stress.
Validating this hypothesis proves that AVPs are a productive way to take initiative on negative emotions students experience on campus. That said, implementing more AVPs on college campuses nationwide can create more positive environments for college communities.
In addition, the results from the experiment bring forth a new way for not just university students to reduce stress; interacting with animals for stress relief can also be beneficial for everyone.
Animals aren’t just our companions. They have a quiet ability to calm us when we feel burdened by the stress that comes with life. In that sense, they are our best friends.