Think You Understand Our Cat? Think Again

It’s Andy here today. Ann is in OurLittleCorner trying not to be too bitter.

The other morning during my routine of skimming the news headlines prior to tackling the Wordle puzzle I saw a byline that I couldn’t resist – “Think You Understand Your Dog? Think Again.” Wordle had to wait.

The article was about an Arizona State University study aimed at determining how accurate we humans are at judging a dog’s emotions. The research design was simple. The lead researcher’s own dog was video-recorded in various situations and the videos were shown to four hundred undergraduates who were asked to assess the dog’s emotional state. Without burdening you with all of the methodological details, the main take-away was that humans (which I assume includes undergraduates) are poor at reading a dog’s emotional state of mind. [Editor’s note: if interested, you can wade through the research details here.]

Reading about this research inspired my decision to devote today’s blog to a replication of that study. But rather than dogs I want to focus on how humans can read the emotional state of cats – or, more precisely, the emotional state of our cat OnoMoore.

Why cats – and why Ono in particular? Two reasons. First, cats are grossly under-researched and deserve much more scientific scrutiny, at least according to James Gorman in his 2018 NYTimes article Why Scientists Love to Study Dogs (and Often Ignore Cats). Despite the fact that about one in every three households has a cat (so says the American Veterinary Medical Association), the “lion’s” share of scientific research on pets is devoted to dogs. Consider your participation in today’s groundbreaking research to be a contribution, modest though it may be, to narrowing that shameful research gap between dogs and cats.

My reason for focusing on Ono in particular is more pragmatic. Both Ann and I previously have written about Ono and her aggressive bent. Ann’s recent blog on how to discipline cats offers some examples of Ono’s highly undisciplined character. And in one of my earlier blogs I reluctantly concluded that Ono is a “jerk.” We both provide graphic details of Ono’s propensity to unexpectedly, and sometimes lethally, lash out at both her human and her non-human housemates. In short, if you are in Ono’s proximity, and not keen on losing some blood, it would be prudent to be able to accurately read her “emotional state.”

So let’s get on with the research. Due to the limited budget here at BigLittleMeals, I had to make some modifications to the Arizona State University research design. In lieu of using 400 captive undergrads as subjects, my research subjects will be our captivated BigLittleMeals followers. And instead of using videos to depict emotional states, I will be using still photos. Also, keep in mind that Ono is much more photogenic than the dog used in the ASU research, a factor that potentially could bias the results.

For my analysis I plan to apply various parametric and nonparametric statistical applications to the data, assuming I’m able to dig up my old statistics textbook from my grad student days. If I am unable to find the textbook, I’ll just forgo the statistics and follow my gut.

INSTRUCTIONS
Below you will find 10 photos of Ono in different situations. Your task is to carefully examine each photo and then, to the best of your ability, select the most accurate indicator that describes Ono’s state of mind in that photo (select only one option). Keep track of your answers on a sheet of paper. When you’re done, follow the instructions located below the last photo.

Now that you’ve selected state-of-mind indicators for all 10 photos go to Answers and count up how many times you were correct. If you got them all correct, congratulations! You are now cleared to be a guest in our home when Ono is around. If you missed one or more of the items we still will welcome you as a guest but insist that you stay at least 20 feet away from Ono at all times. On second thought, because we have a pretty small house and none of our rooms are 20 feet across, it would be best if we come to your house. What kind of wine should we bring for dinner?