ArticleAnimal welfare (South Mimms, England)2025
The role of breed and personality descriptions in influencing perceptions of shelter dog adoptability.
Article in Animal welfare (South Mimms, England), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Dog Breeds for the Future: Theoretical Assessment of Strategies for Enhancing the Behavioural Reliability of Existing Dog Breeds, or Developing New Ideal Urban Companion Dogs.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Review
- The Canine Search and Adoption Decision Process: A Conceptual Framework for Companion Pet Shelter Adoption.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The majority of dogs in US animal shelters are of mixed breed. Many animal shelters still use visual identification to assign breed labels, despite research indicating it to be largely inaccurate. Some shelters now include personality descriptions in conjunction with, or instead of, breed labels. However, little is known about the interaction between these factors. Thus, the aim of this study was to experimentally evaluate the impact of breed labels and descriptions on the perceived adoptability of dogs. Participants, recruited both in-person at a shelter and online, were shown ten dog photos, and indicated how likely they were to adopt the dog. The photos were randomly presented under four conditions: (1) photo only; (2) photo with breed label; (3) photo with description; and (4) photo with both a breed label and description. Overall, descriptions significantly increased perceived adoptability, while breed labels decreased it. Certain breed labels, such as 'Chihuahua mix', 'Chow mix', 'Jack Russell Terrier mix', 'Miniature Pinscher mix', and 'Terrier mix', negatively impacted adoption ratings, while 'Lab mix' had a positive effect. Descriptions like
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.