I'd like to believe cats just don't generalize as much after single incidents and take everything case by case. Ie dogs are lumpers, cats are splitters.
I wonder how much of this is a difference in metabolism. I have no expertise on this subject, but I had a dog growing up and now own a cat. My cat is much more sensitive to being fed on time. When my wife and I looked into dieting for our cat, we learned that their caloric restrictions are quite sensitive. I'm not sure...
What I had in mind was that cats are more sensitive to dietary changes, so that would just override the social part. As an aside, I told my wife about this study without revealing the conclusion, and she thought the conclusion would be that cats are smarter because they don't care about their snowflake owner's feelings lol.
That's hilarious @Zugzug . I love your wife's conclusion. Maybe the cats in the study thought if it was really important to get into the container, the human would just "figure it out" themselves. Dogs do seem to give up easier and look to ppl for help.
I have so many conclusions different from the authors. I think it's possible that the cats are so much smarter that they sensed the whole thing being an act. My cat senses everything. If I'm even a little sad, she stares at me intently. She's very attached to me and treats me like her biological mother (I'm also attached).
I find it funny that the authors are like "woah, let's not anthropomorphize cats and think they knew what they were doing." Yet, they are doing it themselves by thinking someone close to them would never stiff them like that.
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