The Warring States of NPF - Science confirms it: cats are enslaving humans

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Science confirms it: cats are enslaving humans

Quote:

Originally Posted by BBC

Cats 'exploit' humans by purring

Cat owners may have suspected as much, but it seems our feline friends have found a way to manipulate us humans.

Researchers at the University of Sussex have discovered that cats use a "soliciting purr" to overpower their owners and garner attention and food.

Unlike regular purring, this sound incorporates a "cry", with a similar frequency to a human baby's.

The team said cats have "tapped into" a human bias - producing a sound that humans find very difficult to ignore.

Dr Karen McComb, the lead author of the study that was published in the journal Current Biology, said the research was inspired by her own cat, Pepo.

"He would wake me up in the morning with this insistent purr that was really rather annoying," Dr McComb told BBC News.

"After a little bit of investigation, I discovered that there are other cat owners who are similarly bombarded early in the morning."

While meowing might get a cat expelled from the bedroom, Dr McComb said that this pestering purr often convinced beleaguered pet lovers to get up and fill their cat's bowl.

To find out why, her team had to train cat owners to make recordings of their own cats' vocal tactics - recording both their "soliciting purrs" and regular, "non-soliciting" purrs.

"When we played the recordings to human volunteers, even those people with no experience of cats found the soliciting purrs more urgent and less pleasant," said Dr McComb.

How annoying?

She and her team also asked the volunteers to rate the different purrs - giving them a score based on how urgent and pleasant they perceived them to be.

"We could then relate the scores back to the specific purrs," explained Dr McComb. "The key thing (that made the purrs more unpleasant and difficult to ignore) was the relative level of this embedded high-frequency sound."

"When an animal vocalises, the vocal folds (or cords) held across the stream of air snap shut at a particular frequency," explained Dr McComb. The perceived pitch of that sound depends on the size, length and tension of the vocal folds.

"But cats are able to produce a low frequency purr by activating the muscles of their vocal folds - stimulating them to vibrate," explained Dr McComb.

Since each of these sounds is produced by a different mechanism, cats are able to embed a high-pitched cry in an otherwise relaxing purr.

"How urgent and unpleasant the purr is seems to depend on how much energy the cat puts into producing that cry," said Dr McComb.

Previous studies have found similarities between a domestic cat's cry and the cry of a human baby - a sound that humans are highly sensitive to.

Dr McComb said that the cry occurs at a low level in cats' normal purring. "But we think that (they) learn to dramatically exaggerate it when it proves effective in generating a response from humans."

She added that the trait seemed to most often develop in cats that have a one-on-one relationship with their owners.

"Obviously we don't know what's going on inside their minds," said Dr McComb. "But they learn how to do this, and then they do it quite deliberately."

So how does Dr McComb feel about Pepo now she knows he has been manipulating her all these years?

"He's been the inspiration for this whole study, so I'll forgive him - credit where credit's due."

More the evidence that dogs > cats.

if CatState == Meowing

then AzisienState == KickingCat

This article cracks me up.

"Cat owners may have suspected as much, but it seems our feline friends have found a way to manipulate us humans."

Why is this considered manipulation? Just because it knows how to ask for food? So, do human babies manipulate their parents by crying? Because I've seen parents snap to give their babies food, or change their diaper, or comfort them when they cry.

That's all any of this really means to me. If you own a cat, you should be doing it out of love. The fact that you know how to give the cat what it wants should really be a good thing. It's better than being negligent and letting the cat go hungry, right?

I love it when my cat purrs. :]

Well, as much as I'd love to say we're slowly enslaving you thumb peoples, saying this is what makes cats superior to dogs is a weak argument, and more like saying Humans < Pets' whims.

Dogs do it too, and it's more than just the "purr" or "whine", that this experiment covered, but the motions, the positions of the cat, and your personal habits. After living with you for a long time, just as you would with your own parents, domesticated animals will meld their own habits into your niches to move you how they want you to move. From climbing into your bed and putting a heavy paw on your lap, a lick to the face, a low yet high pitched noise coming straight from the back of their throats, and the facial expression they put when you look at them as they do it. Just as you found that perfect pitch to say "Mooooooom, I'm hungry." while looking utterly pitiful.

The real enslavement when your dog or cat has managed, with a few interactions over the course of a day, to make an unthinking you hand them 7 bones/fishy treats in little over an hour, every time you enter the room they're in with just a sequence of paws, noises, and deep looks.

The trick is to act as if it's the first time you've seen them all day, even if they've just gone downstairs to turn off the lights and come right back up. Dogs spin in a circle in their celebratory dance of glee, cats crawl from a hiding spot and generally make it clear that they've noticed you. From there, it varies, but ultimately results in you grabbing that box underneath your cupboard and hastily tossing a snack while getting on with your busy schedule.

yes I agree, if anything this just shows the animal is smarter then we think. Anyone that looks at cat/human relationship will notice the animal isn't subservient. Its a simple deal, "I give you companionship, you give me food". This is also definitely not showing cats are better then dogs. My dog tells me he is hungry all the time. But dogs have vastly simpler vocal cords and often gesture what they want. A cat might alter the tone of its purr for my attention but my dog will nudge me and lead me to what he needs.

Any animal, human included, will indicate it is hungry if you are the one that controls when they are fed. I mean look at their comparison, a baby cries and gets you to feed it, I wouldn't call you the babies slave.

Though I suppose alot depends on how you define it. But from my stance the cat still can do little beyond annoying you until you do it. Still up to you if the cat gets fed, it just found a way to be even more annoying while invoking your instinct not to punt it across the room. Ultimately its still just whining until you do what it wants

Cats are jerks

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aerozord (Post 951268)

Cats are jerks

http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...ons/5vqc6u.gif

Once me and a friend had spent the night at another friend's place, and the other friend had a great big cuddly dog. The morning after we were sitting outside, other friend still asleep, and the dog came up to us, sat down and had us pet him, snuggled up to us a bit, then after a few minutes got up and walked away. I joked "just wait, now that he's softened us up, he's gonna come back with his leash." He did.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fifthfiend (Post 951274)

http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...ons/5vqc6u.gif

your calling me a hater? Wow I must have really been insulting if Fifth thinks I was being too nasty

To be fair, it's not as much the research as it seems to be the article that is claiming this as manipulation.

How many times are you going to use that .gif, Fifth?