I think the key line there is that cats don't look to their owners for safety. They prefer the run and hide under the couch approach.
They didn't control for 70s clothes.
It's not that cats don't love you, it's that they don't trust you.
I fastwarded the video with the sound off, but it looks to me that the cat dumped his owner for a younger woman. Probably got a sports car also.
My sister got dumped by her cat. It happens.
I think they proved that cats remember who put them into small unstable boxes and carried them away from their homes/secure environments. Cats have great capacity for rancor and do not readily forgive betrayal.
Some of my clothes once got dumped on by a cat.
Wait until it's food time, then we'll see who loves whom.
7: I am waiting for forgiveness for this very thing. Luckily, dinnertime is rapidly approaching, and she's not the type to hold a grudge.
7: This is definitely true. And they remember the boxes years later.
I'm forgiven. Before dinner, even. Good kitty.
(To be fair, vet trips aren't quite the same as taking them home for the first time, but they're once or twice a year occasions.)
7 is certainly true, but it's also true that cats are little tarts when all's said and done. What the guy said about regarding their "owner" as a provider of resources rather than security is spot on. And if they find a better provider...
It's all about not being pack animals. Wolves live in packs, and their socalisation fits them for that. The pack is their defence against danger, and their source of hunting and foraging collaborators. It's also extremely hierarchical. A dog joins a pack, most of which have this odd habit of walking on their hind legs, it finds its place in the hierarchy and it's happy.
Wild cats are solitary animals. They interact mainly to mate, to establish territory, and to a limited extent to raise kittens. A cat finds itself with a completely secure territory, however small, guaranteed food, shelter and warmth, and people on hand to tickle it behind the ears, and it's in cat heaven. But it doesn't see its owner as the alpha male/female, because cats don't do alpha.
Has nobody seen the worl dfamous cat-saves-boy-from-dog video? Obviously cats are too smart to be tricked by some stupid experiment.
The only possible conclusion is that cats don't like British people.
Oh cats like people fine. If you knew a guy who for no obvious reason started paying your rent, sending you pizzas every night and occasionally getting you high, you'd probably like him well enough. But you wouldn't necessarily think of him as family.
Can't find the link but there was recently an article about cat psychology that said cats find humans pretty odd (not at all sure how they figured that out: interviews?) but more or less see us as their mothers.
I agree with 14. Unlike the baby or the dog, the cat clearly looked in the direction of the door while the owner was walking out of it. Cats: aware of their surroundings enough not to be thrown for a loop by the obvious.
More seriously, I could buy that cats don't care about individual people, but they definitely have different attitudes towards people in general. We named our cat "Buddy" because he is friendly in general, and is ridiculously friendly for a stray cat, which he was before we adopted him. I gather that he still goes into neighbors' houses if they let him.
"Alpha wolf" has been discredited as a concept, actually - that was apparently based on research on captive wolves. In the wild, wolf packs are families led by the parents.
17: My Peace Corps cat certainly did -- she'd try and nurse off my shirt buttons. Very weird animal.
13: cats don't do alpha
To be fair, I think a lot of investment managers are overrated on that front too.
I truly enjoyed this story about how dogs are nicer than babies, with a funny cat video at the end.
I'd love to see this experiment with 10 year olds. Maybe that's the point: dogs are babies, cats are pre-teens.
15 and 14 taken together would indicate that they save children, but not the British children.
Admirably huge bouffant on the 1970's researcher, well done.
24 - must now go back and watch George Washington for the nth time.
My cat goes on walks with us with the dog. I don't know if that's attachment or just his desire to keep an eye on the dog.
Try going for a walk without the dog. Science.
The more I think about this experiment, the funnier it seems to me. I love Jammies, but would I act like a baby or the dog in the experiment? I'd act more like the cat. The cat is just acting like a grown up.