Petting a Cat or a Cushion [research study]
Insights gleaned from studying cats
People who pet cats and people who pet cushions can perhaps find novel insights in this research study about petting cats and cushions:
"Domestic cats’ reactions to their owner and an unknown individual petting a potential rival," Benoit Bucher, Minori Arahori, Hitomi Chijiwa, Saho Takagi, and Kazuo Fujita, Pet Behaviour Science, vol. 9 2020, pp. 16-33.
The authors explain:
The cats’ behaviors were recorded while they saw their owner petting a'social' object (i.e. potential rival: a realistic-looking soft-toy cat) and a non-social object (furry cushion)....In total, each cat participated in 8 trials, divided into two conditions. The non-social condition consisted of 4 trials during which the actors petted their cushion, two times per actor and in alternating order (e.g. stranger 1st time, owner 1st time, stranger 2nd time, owner 2nd time). The social condition followed the same procedure and consisted of 4 trials during which the actors alternately petted their stuffed cat twice....Together, these results indicate that house cats looked longer at the object petted by the owner when it was a stuffed cat than when it was a cushion.A paid subscription costs about the same as a fancy coffee each month, whether or not you are a cat.
