Centuries back, Ancient Egyptians held cats in the highest esteem and viewed feline types as forms to worship. We may laugh at this statement, but in all seriousness, I ask you to examine your browser history; while we may not worship cats directly, the level of admiration for cat videos is beyond expectation. BBC recently reported that nearly “half of all original YouTube videos are of people’s pets, and around 26 billion views are just for cats, making them the single most popular category”, but not by chance. I can tell you that there are several psychological reasons as to why cats have us at “hello”, as many break it down to the animals simply winning us over for being cute. However, there are deeper explanations as to how the cat phenomenon has remained timeless.
Top Image Courtesy to: Youtube.com
Experts in manipulation
Oddly enough, the sounds that cats make are often used to manipulate us for food and affection, as Dr. Karen McComb reports that cats emulate the sound of the human cry to solicit for food. In doing so, cats are “exploiting sensory biases that humans have for providing care”, and are able to get the attention they want in the way that a baby would. McComb states that cats utilize purring to also signal for human interaction. Often, we perceive purring as a positive action, and feel good about ourselves when we hear a cat purr upon feeding it- perhaps it is all a sham? This opens us up to the notion that feline actions are at times, completed intentionally for human attention, which may explain why they stand as the unofficial rulers of the web.
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The Ultimate Players
Another concept where cats win us over is the Scarcity Principle, or the concept that opportunities appear more valuable to us when they are less available. While dogs will often do anything to be by your side, cats are just way too cool for that. As a result, many become tied to the needs of their pet in order to appease it for a positive reaction. This often makes for a great cat video, as an anti-social, grumpy cat tripping into a laundry basket is almost guaranteed to be a viral sensation. As well, when cats do show affection or delight, it may be more humorous to us partially because this side of them is not as quickly available.
Or just because they are simply adorable?
Most of all, cats are incredibly quirky. I assure that if you watch a cat for longer than five minutes, you’re bound to witness something confusing, adorable, disturbing or mischievous- all very different categories, yes, but if you’ve owned one, you get it. The truth of the matter is we want to see cats mess up or prevail because while it may be cute, we can sometimes relate to them as beings. This is referred to as Self-Reflexive Consciousness, where spectators internalize the experience, and consider themselves to be part of it as a result of the connection they feel to those involved. Cats may be too cool for you at times, but they have weaknesses like everyone else, whether that’s panicking at the sight of a vacuum, stealing food from the pantry or pushing another cat down the stairs.
Not everyone owns or likes cats, but it clear from YouTube statistics that the sensation of watching them is very real. Share your favorite cat videos with us on Twitter @julemagazine, and keep the conversation going!