726
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] InvalidName2@lemmy.zip 84 points 4 days ago

I have doubts that any credible and serious scientific discovery would involve this degree of anthropomorphism when it comes to assigning motivation to an animal's behavior.

But let's say I ended up with a hecking case of brain worms who devoured the vast majority of my critical thinking skills and was able to completely ignore that first point, this still doesn't quite compute. If you've ever had cats and/or dogs in your life, then you are probably also aware that each one has its own unique personality and behaviors. Even if we assume that they have human-like rationalizations and emotional capacity, does it even make sense to believe that they all uniformly perceive people in the same uniform manner?

[-] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 47 points 4 days ago

It's based on way too many reinterpretations of descriptions of studies into how cats communicate. Basically cats without human interaction will only meow as kittens communicating to their mom and their mother might meow back, and as they grow older they will learn to communicate with each other purely by body language and pheramones. Cats who interact with humans have learned that meowing at us like kittens gets our attention and is effective at communicating with us.

Some have interpreted that to mean cats see us as really strange kittens, which of course gets miscommunicated by well meaning people repeating something they half-remember. It seems the reality is just cats have learned to adjust their behavior to better coexist with humans.

Impressively, cats and their humans also will develop complex enough communication that humans can interpret the need of the cat purely from their meow

At least this is my memory of research I half-remember reading about

[-] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 3 days ago
[-] AppleTea@lemmy.zip 14 points 3 days ago

I have come to accept the research telephone. Yeah, my understanding of the actual research is filtered through countless interlocking individuals and who knows how many narrative frameworks. The best I can do, without just getting a degree in the field, is to try to sample as many of these narrative interpretations as possible.

When I see the point made that we believe science like a new religion, I cannot help but see the glimmer of truth in that interpretation. Ok, sure, fine by me. I trust the mechanism of passive-aggressive peer review more than any holy text or hierarchy of clergy.

[-] Canconda@lemmy.ca 8 points 3 days ago

some have interpreted that to mean cats see us as really strange kittens,

Not just the meowing. Bringing dead animals is also thought to be related to maternal instinct or some other social behaviour.

I do agree though that people are running with this stuff further than the science has verified.

[-] TheFogan@programming.dev 1 points 4 days ago

Agreed, cats are more than aware that the tall creatures in the house, are the ones that know how to use a can opener.

[-] Zerush@lemmy.ml -1 points 3 days ago

On scientific level, dogs is a herd animal, which need a leader, cats don't know leaders, they a single hunters, they can create asociations with other cats if it have advantages to obtain food, leader or boss are not in their vocabulary. Human can be a good friend but not more, if not, he's only the tin opener. As said, cats are almost the exact opposite of dogs, even in their body lenguage.

[-] ThirdConsul@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago
[-] Zerush@lemmy.ml -3 points 3 days ago

Yes, but these are not hirarchical Groups like in Dogs or Wulfs, these are more interests groups to follow the smartest, which in felines are the females, most the oldest and experienced. But there are not organized structures. "You know where the food is, I'll follow you". Lions are the only cats with structured groups and a leader.

this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2025
726 points (94.7% liked)

Science Memes

16067 readers
1160 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS