Small Moments Count
When we think about social connection, we often think about the people closest to us: family, friends and partners. But connection can also happen in much smaller moments woven through everyday life.
A smile from someone you pass regularly, a quick hello or a brief conversation may not seem particularly significant. Yet research suggests that interactions with people outside our close social circle, including acquaintances and strangers, can contribute to positive emotions, a sense of belonging and wellbeing (Gunaydin et al., 2021; Sandstrom & Dunn, 2014).
One way of understanding this is through positivity resonance (Fredrickson, 2016). This describes small moments in which two people share positive emotion and respond to one another. They don't need to happen within an established relationship: they can arise between people who hardly know each other or even between strangers.
Not every greeting or conversation will feel positive or lead to meaningful connection. But when an interaction does involve a genuine moment of warmth or mutual responsiveness, it may have value in its own right.
That's part of the thinking behind Paws for Connection. The aim isn't to turn every dog walk into a mission to make new friends. It's to recognise that some of the small interactions already happening around us may be more meaningful than they first appear.
The Surprising Value of Talking to Strangers
Brief conversations with people we do not know might seem insignificant, but research suggests they can make a meaningful contribution to how we feel.
Epley and Schroeder (2014) explored this through a series of experiments with commuters. Participants were asked either to connect with a stranger during their journey, remain disconnected or behave as they normally would. Those who connected with a stranger reported a more positive experience. Yet beforehand, people predicted the opposite: they thought interacting with a stranger would make the journey less enjoyable.
This gap between what we expect and what actually happens appears in other everyday settings too. Sandstrom and Dunn (2014) found that people who had a brief social interaction with a coffee-shop barista subsequently reported greater positive affect than those who completed the transaction as efficiently as possible, with initial evidence that feelings of belonging helped explain this effect.
Why might we miss these opportunities? One reason may be that we underestimate how positively other people will respond. Across several studies, people's fears about talking to strangers tended to be more negative than their experiences once they actually had the conversation (Sandstrom & Boothby, 2021).
None of this means that every interaction will be positive or that talking to strangers is something you should force yourself to do. But it does suggest that small social interactions can have value in their own right - and they may feel better than we expect.
This is one reason Paws for Connection encourages you to notice the social openings that may already arise on your dog walks. Your dog may provide the opportunity; whether you choose to take it is up to you.
How Dogs Can Open the Door to Connection
If you walk a dog, you may already have noticed that people are more likely to smile, say hello or start a conversation when your dog is with you. Research suggests there really is something to this: dogs can act as social facilitators, making it easier for people to interact with one another.
For my MSc dissertation, I carried out a systematic review of research exploring how dogs facilitate social interaction and connection between adults. Across the studies, the most consistent finding was that dogs appeared to make it easier for interactions to begin. They could make people seem more approachable, provide an easy topic of conversation and prompt friendly exchanges between people who might otherwise have passed one another without speaking (Campbell et al., 2016; Lea et al., 2025; Stamataki & Tragantzopoulou, 2025; Westgarth et al., 2017).
Earlier experimental research found something similar. McNicholas and Collis (2000) found that being accompanied by a dog led to more social interaction, particularly with strangers. In other words, a dog can provide a natural reason for that first bit of contact to happen.
But the role dogs play may go beyond a single conversation. My review also found evidence that repeated dog-related encounters can contribute to recognition, familiarity and a sense of community. People described becoming known or recognised because of their dogs; sometimes even knowing one another through their dogs before they knew each other's names (Schmitz et al., 2026; Stamataki & Tragantzopoulou, 2025).
Dog walking may be particularly well suited to creating these opportunities. It gets us out into shared spaces, often along familiar routes and at similar times, where we may repeatedly encounter neighbours, other dog walkers and people in the wider community (Campbell et al., 2016; Curl et al., 2021; Mayorga-Gallo, 2018; Westgarth et al., 2017).
Of course, having a dog does not automatically create connection. Whether an interaction feels welcome can depend on the people, dogs, setting and wider social context. Dogs are not guaranteed social connectors; rather, they can create openings for connection that might otherwise not have been there.
Why Paws for Connection Works the Way it Does
Paws for Connection brings this research together and turns it into something practical that can be explored during ordinary dog walks. Its structure is deliberate, but the emphasis throughout is on choice.
One of the main theories influencing its design was self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). In particular, autonomy means keeping the choice with you: whether you want to interact, when you do so and what that interaction looks like.
Planning can also help turn intentions into action. Research on implementation intentions (Gollwitzer, 1999) informed Prepare, which encourages you to think about where opportunities might arise and how you might choose to respond.
Paws for Connection then uses five self-selected walks to give you several opportunities to notice what happens and learn from your own experience. This was informed in part by Sandstrom et al. (2022), whose five-day stranger-interaction practice was associated with increasingly positive expectations about talking to strangers and greater confidence in conversational ability.
Reflection is part of that process too. Research suggests that deliberately attending to positive experiences can enhance their emotional impact (Jose et al., 2012), while reflection can help us learn from experience (Ellis et al., 2014). That's why Engage & Reflect asks just a few questions after each walk: what happened, what felt worthwhile and whether there is anything you might want to try again or do differently next time.
Most importantly, Paws for Connection is intended to fit around your life and your dog, rather than turn dog walking into another task to complete. There is no target number of conversations and no requirement to interact at all.
At the end, Review & Build simply asks what, if anything, you would like to carry forward. The aim isn't to keep adding more social interaction. It's to take anything you found useful and let it become part of your everyday walks, in whatever way suits you.
References
Campbell, K., Smith, C., Tumilty, S., Cameron, C., & Treharne, G. (2016). How does dog-walking influence perceptions of health and wellbeing in healthy adults? A qualitative dog-walk-along study. Anthrozoös, 29(2), 181–192. https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2015.1082770
Curl, A. L., Bibbo, J., & Johnson, R. A. (2021). Neighborhood engagement, dogs, and life satisfaction in older adulthood. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 40(12), 1706–1714. https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464820953725
Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Very happy people. Psychological Science, 13(1), 81–84. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00415
Ellis, S., Carette, B., Anseel, F., & Lievens, F. (2014). Systematic reflection: Implications for learning from failures and successes. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(1), 67–72. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721413504106
Epley, N., & Schroeder, J. (2014). Mistakenly seeking solitude. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(5), 1980–1999. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037323
Fredrickson, B. L. (2016). Love: Positivity resonance as a fresh, evidence-based perspective on an age-old topic. In L. F. Barrett, M. Lewis, & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (4th ed., pp. 847–858). Guilford Press.
Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54(7), 493–503. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.493
Gunaydin, G., Oztekin, H., Karabulut, D. H., & Salman-Engin, S. (2021). Minimal social interactions with strangers predict greater subjective well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 22(4), 1839–1853. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-020-00298-6
Jose, P. E., Lim, B. T., & Bryant, F. B. (2012). Does savoring increase happiness? A daily diary study. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 7(3), 176–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2012.671345
Lea, C., Kirby, Y., & Tilley, J. (2025). Dogs as a gateway to the good life: Using thematic analysis to explore the mechanisms underpinning dog ownership and human well-being. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 22(1), 15–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2024.2364330
Mayorga-Gallo, S. (2018). Whose best friend? Dogs and racial boundary maintenance in a multiracial neighborhood. Sociological Forum, 33(2), 505–528. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12425
McNicholas, J., & Collis, G. M. (2000). Dogs as catalysts for social interactions: Robustness of the effect. British Journal of Psychology, 91(1), 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712600161673
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860
Sandstrom, G. M., & Boothby, E. J. (2021). Why do people avoid talking to strangers? A mini meta-analysis of predicted fears and actual experiences talking to a stranger. Self and Identity, 20(1), 47–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2020.1816568
Sandstrom, G. M., Boothby, E. J., & Cooney, G. (2022). Talking to strangers: A week-long intervention reduces psychological barriers to social connection. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 102, 104356. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104356
Sandstrom, G. M., & Dunn, E. W. (2014). Is efficiency overrated? Minimal social interactions lead to belonging and positive affect. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5(4), 437–442. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550613502990
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Why Social Connection Matters
Feeling connected to other people is an important part of wellbeing. Our relationships and social connections can contribute not only to how happy and supported we feel, but also to our physical and mental health.
Research has consistently highlighted the importance of relationships. Diener and Seligman (2002), for example, found that strong social relationships were a key feature of the lives of very happy people. In self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020), relatedness (feeling connected to and cared for by others) is considered one of three basic psychological needs.
Perhaps some of the most compelling evidence comes from the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the longest-running studies of adult life, which has found that the quality of our relationships is closely associated with happiness and health across the lifespan (Waldinger & Schulz, 2023).
Of course, social connection does not look the same for everyone. We differ in how much interaction we want, the relationships that matter to us, and the ways in which we prefer to connect. The point isn't that there is a particular number of friends or amount of socialising we should aim for. Rather, the research suggests something broader: feeling meaningfully connected to other people is an important part of living well.
And connection doesn't only happen within our closest relationships. Some of it can happen in much smaller, more everyday ways too.