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The Problem with “Furry Little Humans” Andrea Carne discusses a new study that highlights unfair bias in evaluating cat behavior
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et’s open this discussion with the whole cats vs. dogs “thing.” Honestly, why do we continue to debate this ongoing battle of the species? Social media is filled with cartoons and memes depicting the supposedly obvious differences and, while I can enjoy the funny side as much as anyone else, there is a serious side to the argument when it comes to ac tual research. Case in point: A new study by Chijiiwa et al. (2021) on cat behavior has already gained a lot of press this year, not because it’s an interesting study (even though it is), but rather because many have jumped on its apparent support of the ageold stereotype of cats: i.e. unlike dogs, they are “indiffer ent” to the needs and affections of their guardians. When researching this latest study, I was immedi ately met with headlines like Double‐Crossing Cats Will Not Choose Owners over Their Enemies, study finds and Cats are Too Socially Inept to Be Loyal.
Stereotypes
© Can Stock Photo / chalabala
A study by Chijiiwa et al. (2021) found that cats do not think in the same way as humans when it comes to social cues
As a catloving cat behavior consultant, such headlines disappoint me because they depict cats with an anthro pomorphic bias, as if they were small, furry versions of ourselves. And this, in my opinion, does cats a great disservice. If we truly want to un derstand cats better – and, let’s face it, we have so much more to learn – then we need to stop thinking of them as “furry little humans” and start thinking of them as CATS. We need to appreciate them as distinct, behaviorally complex animals who think about the world in quite a dif ferent way to humans…and dogs…and any other species! And this is what this latest study points to. Despite the sensational ized headlines crafted to grab the reader’s attention, and rather than it being a huge victory for the many humans who believe cats are selfish, narcissistic loners, the study instead helps us understand that our felines simply don’t think the way we do when it comes to social cues. So, with that as my preamble, what did the study in question actu ally find? Well, in a nutshell, it concluded that cats, unlike dogs, will not avoid strangers who refuse to help their guardians. Carried out by researchers from Kyoto University in Japan, the study involved 36 domestic cats (13 of which were owned house cats and 23 who lived in cat cafes), their owners and some actors. In an experiment that adapted a technique previously used on dogs, the actors were split into “helpers” and “nonhelpers.” Each cat was put in a situation where they watched their guardian try to open a transparent container and take an object out, with no success, before turning to another human for help. In the “helper” group, an actor assisted the guardian in trying to open the container, while in the “nonhelper” group, an actor refused to help the owner and instead turned away. To offer a point of comparison, a third person sat in both situations and remained completely neutral. Then – and here’s the crux of the study – after each scenario was complete, the actor and the neutral per son both tried to offer a treat to the cat and the researchers recorded who the cat took the treat from.
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BARKS from the Guild/July 2021
The result? After four trials, regardless of whether the person had helped the guardian, not helped the guardian, or stayed neutral, the cat happily took a treat from them. In other words, they seemingly gave no relevance to what had just happened between the humans and happily took food from any and all participants.
Cats vs. Dogs Now, in a similar experiment with dogs, the dogs would clearly avoid the actor who did not help their guardian, thus adding fuel to the fire of the ongoing debate of cats vs. dogs – that dogs are loyal and cats don’t give two hoots about their guardians. But this is certainly not what I believe, and it’s not what the re searchers believe either. As they wrote in their paper: “It is conceivable that the cats in this study did not understand the meaning or goal of the owners’ behavior…But even if they did understand the owner’s goal or intention, they might have failed to detect the negative intention of the nonhelpful actor.” (Chijiiwa et al., 2021). This is to say the cats in the study may not have understood that the nonhelper was not helping their guardians due to them not having the same social evaluation skills as humans – or dogs for that matter. So, should we be concerned that cats don’t comprehend human so cial relationships at the level dogs do? No, of course not. Again, we need to stop lumping completely different species in the same boat and re sorting to humanbased analogies like “dogs care about us and cats don’t.” As the researchers themselves stated: “We consider that cats might not possess the same social evaluation abilities as dogs, at least in this situation, because unlike the latter, they have not been selected to cooperate with humans … cats’ evolved social system and their particu lar domestication history might have resulted in a restricted capacity for third partybased social evaluation.” (Chijiiwa et al., 2021).