
Scientist: Cats think you are just a big, stupid cat - zerny
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57617101-71/scientist-cats-think-you-are-just-a-big-stupid-cat/
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Xephyrous
Interesting topic and book although I highly recommended skipping this article
in favor of the [NYT article
cited]([http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/science/cat-sense-
expla...](http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/science/cat-sense-explains-
what-theyre-really-thinking.html?_r=2&referrer=)).

This title and article are misleading, no where in the NYT piece does it say
cats think we're "big stupid cats", just that they use their social norms
towards us, as that's all they know. The cnet article is juvenile speculation.

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analog31
Franz Kafka wrote a short story, "Investigations of a Dog," in which a dog
tries to figure out where his food comes from, and why he goes through a
barking and jumping ritual before receiving his food, and ends up creating a
myth of a giant invisible soaring dog.

~~~
bluekeybox
Wow, much metaphysic. /sorry, couldn't resist.

~~~
jrockway
I believe the meme is "Wow. _Such_ ..."

~~~
tokenizerrr
very wrong

much incorrect

~~~
jrockway
Such pedantry.

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goodcanadian
That cats aren't really domesticated . . . I wholeheartedly agree. They have
simply learned to cohabit with us.

That cats don't know we are different . . . I wholeheartedly disagree. In some
respects, they treat us like cats, probably because that is the language they
know. To be fair, however, many people treat their pets like little dumb
humans while realizing that they aren't actually people.

What the hell is an anthrozoologist, anyway? That sounds like something he
made up to call himself.

~~~
wereHamster
I don't know if you've heard of this website 'wikipedia', if not, you should
visit it sometime.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthrozoology](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthrozoology)

~~~
colechristensen
To be fair 'Anthrozoology' was coined in late 2010 and it's quite likely the
number of people who might call it their specialty is very small.

[http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=Anthrozoology](http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=Anthrozoology)

~~~
droope
[http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=Anthrozoology%2C%20de...](http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=Anthrozoology%2C%20dentistry&cmpt=q)

~~~
colechristensen
It is not at all clear what point you are trying to make. Put in a little
effort.

~~~
headlights
Anthrozoology has a much lower search interest than dentistry and is localised
in the United States.

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pedalpete
I've always said that I think dogs think that one day they too will become
like us, which is why they insist on sitting in the drivers seat when you
leave the car. However, I don't believe cats and dogs are so unaware as to
think we are actually no different to them. I may agree if animals weren't
able to recognize other species of animal, but clearly they can. Dogs and cats
inherently know they don't like each other, cats like to chase birds and mice,
so they can recognize other animals. Why would anybody make a statement
assuming that a cat can't recognize that we are different from them.

~~~
zastrowm
Well, I can tell you that some cats will chase _anything_ (usually anything
smaller than themselves) and some cats will play with dogs as if they were a
big brother. So while they may know that other animals are _different_ from
themselves, I'm not sure they recognize that they are a different species.

~~~
qq66
Don't know a lot about cat behavior. Would they hunt and kill a sparrow-sized
kitten that wasn't theirs?

~~~
ams6110
A male lion, when taking over a pride, will kill all the young lions that are
not his offspring.

~~~
Crito
I have heard that lions' pack behaviour is more reminiscent of dogs than it is
of domesticated cats, which have a more solitary nature similar to tigers or
other big cats.

Do you know if this sort of behaviour has also been witnessed in wolf packs?

~~~
judk
It's mentioned in Call of the Wild, but that's not a very reliable scientific
source.

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j_baker
This isn't my interpretation of _Cat Sense_. The author clearly compares how
cats treat each other and how they treat humans and points out the parallels.
But the author really seems to be of the opinion that cats are more
affectionate towards us than they are towards each other. Cats have depended
on us for centuries to provide them mice to eat, but they haven't quite
developed the same social skills with their own kind (as compared to dogs).

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girvo
Ugh. Anyone who thinks cats having a "wild" streak is a good thing is an
idiot, considering the sheer damage done to ecosystems by escaped and feral
cats.

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duopixel
This is inane. Why is a cat friendly towards human visitors, yet hostile
towards feline ones? We show human signs affection towards cats, why wouldn't
they use their own body language towards us?

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georgemcbay
I haven't read the book this is based on so maybe that makes it more clear,
but reading just the article I agree this is inane. I grew up with cats and
have a cat now and they clearly act differently not only when it comes to
strange humans vs strange cats, but also humans of different types, eg.
genders (my cat trusts human females inherently but it takes her a long time
to trust males, I adopted her from a shelter when she was 2 and assume she
used to be abused by a male or something).

All that aside, cats do use their own body language towards us quite a bit,
like the head-bump, the "making biscuits" thing and the slow eye blink. But
they also customize things for us as well, like I've read other researchers
who say cats don't meow (in a non-growl way) with each other after they are
kittens, that is reserved for talking to humans.

~~~
auctiontheory
_my cat trusts human females inherently but it takes her a long time to trust
males_

Huh. What's your best guess how she tells males and females (of another
species: humans) apart?

~~~
ricardobeat
Most likely by smell, that is how they identify each other and other animals,
since their daytime vision kind of sucks. Sometimes they can tell when you're
arriving way before you get to the door.

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coldcode
Dogs have owners; cats have staff. I guess they think of us as big stupid
minimum wage cat staff.

~~~
judk
Hey, dogs have (alpha) companions.

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adventured
I'm always fascinated by the implications of the very common approach of
people to anthropomorphize cats when discussing them and to put down human
intelligence in relation to the cat in the process. I don't see it done nearly
as commonly when dogs are discussed. It seems nearly universal in the
discussion of cats anywhere online.

"Given that he believes cats are semi-feral and that they think we are cats
too, we must surely consider that cats aren't all that stupid -- because they
must realize that we are, in fact, quite that stupid."

~~~
guspe
We can't avoid applying human paradigms to animal behaviour. Cats strike us as
introverted and cynical so they serve well the purpose of criticizing
humanity; by playing the role of a cat, people can disclose about the
pointlessness of life without sounding too bitter or too philosophical (much
like dogs facilitate talking about how humans can be loyal, friendly and
honorable).

Nonetheless, opinions about dogs and cats really are homogeneous. Maybe this
means our ideas about those animals have been constructed over time. We
wouldn't be so eager to call an eagle "loyal" or "smart". Our relationship
with dogs and cats is so long that we've had enough time to carefully craft
their images.

~~~
bitwize
_Cats strike us as introverted and cynical_

A lot of that has to do with a cat's expression, which we assign human
significance to. If a human looks at you through half-closed eyes, it can be a
sign of suspicion; whereas if a cat looks at you through half-closed eyes, it
usually means the cat likes you and trusts you, and feels comfortable around
you.

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industriousthou
Cats think of us as big, dumb, non-threatening cats? I assumed they thought
less highly of us.

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salgernon
Well, a cat would have at least properly escaped the entity encoding (caption
on the photo)

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knighthawk12
The last time I published a professional paper you had to give your
affiliation with your university, government agency or at least what gives
your opinion credibility. Who is this guy and where does he get his data to
make this claim?

~~~
headlights
I think cats are awesome too.

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callesgg
I doubt animals has the slightest knowledge of the fact that there is multiple
spices of animals.

More like that animal is interesting that lager ugly one over there is not.

~~~
headlights
Ugly changes without a sense of cruelty.

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headlights
There may be arrogance in saying that we can think in any other way that is
not human.

