Cats are manipulative mind-control demons

[LucyDuke]

Cats 'exploit' humans by purring

Cat owners may have suspected as much, but it seems our feline friends have found a way to manipulate us humans.

Researchers at the University of Sussex have discovered that cats use a "soliciting purr" to overpower their owners and garner attention and food.

Unlike regular purring, this sound incorporates a "cry", with a similar frequency to a human baby's.

The team said cats have "tapped into" a human bias - producing a sound that humans find very difficult to ignore.

Dr Karen McComb, the lead author of the study that was published in the journal Current Biology, said the research was inspired by her own cat, Pepo.

"He would wake me up in the morning with this insistent purr that was really rather annoying," Dr McComb told BBC News.

"After a little bit of investigation, I discovered that there are other cat owners who are similarly bombarded early in the morning."

While meowing might get a cat expelled from the bedroom, Dr McComb said that this pestering purr often convinced beleaguered pet lovers to get up and fill their cat's bowl.

To find out why, her team had to train cat owners to make recordings of their own cats' vocal tactics - recording both their "soliciting purrs" and regular, "non-soliciting" purrs.

"When we played the recordings to human volunteers, even those people with no experience of cats found the soliciting purrs more urgent and less pleasant," said Dr McComb.

How annoying?

She and her team also asked the volunteers to rate the different purrs - giving them a score based on how urgent and pleasant they perceived them to be.

"We could then relate the scores back to the specific purrs," explained Dr McComb. "The key thing (that made the purrs more unpleasant and difficult to ignore) was the relative level of this embedded high-frequency sound."

"When an animal vocalises, the vocal folds (or cords) held across the stream of air snap shut at a particular frequency," explained Dr McComb. The perceived pitch of that sound depends on the size, length and tension of the vocal folds.

"But cats are able to produce a low frequency purr by activating the muscles of their vocal folds - stimulating them to vibrate," explained Dr McComb.

Since each of these sounds is produced by a different mechanism, cats are able to embed a high-pitched cry in an otherwise relaxing purr.

"How urgent and unpleasant the purr is seems to depend on how much energy the cat puts into producing that cry," said Dr McComb.

Previous studies have found similarities between a domestic cat's cry and the cry of a human baby - a sound that humans are highly sensitive to.

Dr McComb said that the cry occurs at a low level in cats' normal purring. "But we think that (they) learn to dramatically exaggerate it when it proves effective in generating a response from humans."

She added that the trait seemed to most often develop in cats that have a one-on-one relationship with their owners.

"Obviously we don't know what's going on inside their minds," said Dr McComb. "But they learn how to do this, and then they do it quite deliberately."

So how does Dr McComb feel about Pepo now she knows he has been manipulating her all these years?

"He's been the inspiration for this whole study, so I'll forgive him - credit where credit's due."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8147566.stm

Has anyone here been a victim of this?

 

[bigdog5994]

i dont think its ever happened to me before

 

[Angst]

I really hope that university isn't publicly funded.

 

[Phlegmak]

Has anyone here been a victim of this?

Doesn't sound familiar to me.

 

[bhsup]

It is only more proof that they are our rightful overlords, Lucy.

 

[Moggy]

A quick kick soon shuts them up.

 

[Angst]

Also, I'd like to add that girls that figure out how to purr in a cute voice makes my knees tremble and make them huggable beyond comprehension.

 

[Zack]

I don't have cats, so no. Dogs FTW!!

 

[illram]

Yes this morning at 5:45AM, and any other morning my wife or I make the mistake of leaving the bedroom door open.

 

[xgmx]

omg!!!!

 

[Catharsis]

Never had that happen to me. It took my cat fifteen years to work out that humans don't respond to all her subtle body language and scent clues, but now that she understands that, she won't even meow. She just screeches until someone pays attention to her.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I really hope that university isn't publicly funded.

It's more vital than fruit fly research, I can tell you that.

 

[Ayatollah So]

My oldest cat will do a combination thing: "prrmeow?" when she wants her food or wants to go out. It's a clear-cut request, as can be seen from body language even if you're deaf. I don't know how she learned that rising-tone-at-the-end thing that makes it sound like a question, or whether that just comes naturally.

Now if she wants my food, the purr sounds more like a normal purr but with a little more vigor, and there is plenty of rubbing on legs & such. Yeah yeah, you really really love me now that I have chicken, I know.

 

[Neomega]

I really hope that university isn't publicly funded.

that's what I thought when I read the article this morning too. What a stupid study... and totally baseless.

My cat has a constant bowl of cat food, and will still purr, meow and ask me to pet him while he eats. In fact, he hardly ever eats when I'm not home.

 

[GoodGame]

It's more vital than fruit fly research, I can tell you that.

IDK, the psychology of fruit flies could be pretty useful for world domination.

 

[Miles Teg]

My cat needs to read this article. Subtlety isn't her game. Her thought process works something like this:

I have been in this house for fifteen whole minutes, and before that I was outside for ten minutes. I need out again. meow... meow..... meow!" Where is everyone? "meow? MEOW?" No one's here. I should go to the bedroom! But the door is closed... "MEOW, meow, meow?" The bedroom door is open now. But not the front door. "meow, meow, mEOw!" He's staring at that rectangle thing on the the desk. I should stand in front of it! No, darn it, now he's picked me up and is petting me. I'm TRAPPED! RUN AWAY! Now stand in front of the rectangle again. "Meow? Meow? Meow? Finally, he's letting me out. I need back in again.

 

[Adria]

My oldest cat will do a combination thing: "prrmeow?" when she wants her food or wants to go out. It's a clear-cut request, as can be seen from body language even if you're deaf. I don't know how she learned that rising-tone-at-the-end thing that makes it sound like a question, or whether that just comes naturally.

Now if she wants my food, the purr sounds more like a normal purr but with a little more vigor, and there is plenty of rubbing on legs & such. Yeah yeah, you really really love me now that I have chicken, I know.

Haha my old cat does the same thing. When he wants something, he just meows very insistently; there's no way it can be called an 'insistent purr'. And he gets the questioning tone and look too. Right now, when the kitten wants something in the morning, she just starts digging at the covers right next to my head. She occasionally meows for food when I'm in the kitchen, but only if the other cat is already doing so.

 

[Aegis]

Yes.

Every time one of our cats thinks he's going to get a bath, he suddenly starts purring & rubbing up against our leg. It's pretty comical when it happens because it's obvious he's trying to butter us up in order to avoid misfortune.

 

[Lillefix]

I have been in this house for fifteen whole minutes, and before that I was outside for ten minutes. I need out again. meow... meow..... meow!" Where is everyone? "meow? MEOW?" No one's here. I should go to the bedroom! But the door is closed... "MEOW, meow, meow?" The bedroom door is open now. But not the front door. "meow, meow, mEOw!" He's staring at that rectangle thing on the the desk. I should stand in front of it! No, darn it, now he's picked me up and is petting me. I'm TRAPPED! RUN AWAY! Now stand in front of the rectangle again. "Meow? Meow? Meow? Finally, he's letting me out. I need back in again.

You should rewrite that in lolcat speech.

 

[J-man]

I have been in this house for fifteen whole minutes, and before that I was outside for ten minutes. I need out again. meow... meow..... meow!" Where is everyone? "meow? MEOW?" No one's here. I should go to the bedroom! But the door is closed... "MEOW, meow, meow?" The bedroom door is open now. But not the front door. "meow, meow, mEOw!" He's staring at that rectangle thing on the the desk. I should stand in front of it! No, darn it, now he's picked me up and is petting me. I'm TRAPPED! RUN AWAY! Now stand in front of the rectangle again. "Meow? Meow? Meow? Finally, he's letting me out. I need back in again.

My cat exactly...