WBI Studies Repository (WellBeing International)
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Study Finds Therapy Dogs Have No Effect on Anxiety in Teens
Get PDFThe study was carefully done and controlled for individual differences in teenager anxiety, had adequate number of subjects, and included both objective and subjective measures. In the end, the study found that the presence of a real dog, or being able to touch a real dog, did not reduce subject anxiety
Do School Closures Cause a Surge In Dog Bites to Children?
Get PDFThe number of children being seen in hospital emergency departments with dog bites skyrocketed during the pandemic in both Colorado and the United Kingdom. Both studies attributed the increase to children staying at home and having more frequent contact with dogs during the day. When children returned to school in the UK, dog bite rates, as measured by the number of children seen in hospital emergency rooms, began to fall
Women Dominate Research on the Human-Animal Bond
Get PDFMore women than men are drawn to professions that involve the care of animals. In recent years. female researchers have come to dominate the study of human-animal relationships. While women are underrepresented as subjects in medical research, there are too few male participants in studies of the human-animal bond. The lack of male participants compromises the validity of many studies of human-animal relationships
Heeding the call of COVID-19
Get PDFWe are grateful to all of our commentators. They have provided a wide range of valuable perspectives and insights from many fields, revealing a broad interest in the subject matter. Nearly all the commentaries have helped to affirm, refine, expand, amplify, deepen, interpret, elaborate, or apply the messages in the target article. Some have offered critiques and suggestions that help us address certain issues in greater detail, including several points concerning industrialized farming and the wildlife trade. Overall, there is great awareness and strong consensus among commentators that any solution for preventing future pandemics and other related health crises must take into account not only what is best for humans but also what is best for nonhumans and the environment, given the profound interconnectedness of all life
If we build it, will they come?
Get PDFYou know things are going well when Bill Gates is talking up the potential of plant-based meat with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes. Gates even told Forbes that beyond Meat and Impossible Foods’ success has given him hope for solving meat’s climate impact.Other investors are equally excited. In just the first seven months of 2020, they invested about $1.5B in alternative protein startups (see chart below). The Good Food Institute now tracks 510 companies working on plant-based, cultivated, or fermented alternatives to animal proteins. Many of these companies are racing to make alternatives as cheap and tasty as animal products. The implicit assumption is that, if they succeed, consumers will view the alternatives as perfect substitutes and switch in droves. Will they
Climate Change, Food Systems, and Health Impact at the United Nations
Get PDFThree significant gatherings address various aspects of climate change, and global limits started in September and proceeded through early November. In September (21 to 27), the United Nations (UN) held its 76th annual meeting (also known as the General Assembly) in New York. During this meeting, the Food Systems Summit (FSS) was organized as a side meeting to the General Assembly on September 23. The 26th annual climate change conference (COP26) will be held from October 31 through November 12 in Glasgow, and the World Health Organization (WHO) will hold its 4th conference on climate change and human health during this meeting (November 6)
Dasgupta Review Revisited
Get PDFA significant critique of the Dasgupta Review by authors Spash and Hache (2021) has been published in the journal Globalizations. The article is open access, so it is available for anyone to read. We would recommend it to anybody interested in ecological economics and the challenges of valuing Nature. The lead author (Clive Spash) is an ecological economist currently at the Vienna University of Economics and Business
World Happiness Report 2021
Get PDF2020 has been a year like no other. This whole report focuses on the effects of COVID-19 and how people all over the world have fared. Our aim was two-fold, first to focus on the effects of COVID-19 on the structure and quality of people’s lives, and second to describe and evaluate how governments all over the world have dealt with the pandemic. In particular, we try to explain why some countries have done so much better than others.
• The pandemic’s worst effect has been the 2 million deaths from COVID-19 in 2020. A rise of nearly 4% in the annual number of deaths worldwide represents a serious social welfare loss.
• For the living there has been greater economic insecurity, anxiety, disruption of every aspect of life, and, for many people, stress and challenges to mental and physical health
Webinar Series: Invertebrate Animal Sentience
No full textWBI hosted free webinars on October 20 & 27, 2021, on the question of what invertebrates like octopi and bees feel, moderated by Animal Sentience Editor-in-Chief Stevan Harnad
Genes May Have a Big Influence on Vegetarianism
Get PDFA Dutch research project found that identical twins were more similar than fraternal twins in giving up meat. This suggests that one’s genetic make-up may play a role in whether one is a vegetarian or not. The genetic effect became less influential in males than in females as they grew older