• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

Dog/Cat preference Linked with Social Dominance and Political View

Like/Dislike Dogs/Cats?


  • Total voters
    39

á´…eparted

passages
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
8,265
This is interesting:

http://theconversation.com/faithful-fido-or-fickle-felix-what-determines-our-pet-preferences-26926

To highlight a few excerpts from the article:

In a 2014 American survey conducted with Time magazine, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt also showed that conservatives prefer dogs. A 2012 study conducted by the American Veterinary Medical Association found that nine of the ten states with the highest rates of dog ownership voted Republican in that year’s US presidential election. Nine of the ten states with the lowest rates voted Democrat.

We obtained two samples of more than 500 American adults and gave them a survey that assessed several dominance-related personality characteristics and quizzed them about their pet preferences. In both studies, self-professed dog people scored higher than cat people on measures of competitiveness and particularly on “social dominance orientation” (SDO) – the tendency to expect, accept and endorse inequality between social groups.

Women scored lower than men on SDO and were more likely to be cat people, but the link between SDO and being a dog person could not be explained by gender.


I think this is really interesting, and on the surface seems easy to explain, but appears to be a lot more difficult. Cats and dogs do have behavioral differences and there have been many studies connecting those with the personalities of people. I can not find it at the moment, but I remember reading a study several years ago saying that cat people tend to be better at reading body language. Reason being: cat body language and behavior is far more complex and subtle than dogs. The study here seems to be making an additional extension link between cats/dogs, personality, and political peference. Maybe one that is a bit too abstract to be that meaningful, but it's still very interesting to read.

On a personal level, I am a TOTAL cat person. Always have been since early childhood. I begged for a cat as a pet from just 3 years old. They're soft, cute, and complex. I "get" cat behavior very easily, and as such I jive with them well. I've had friends call me a cat whisperer before because I can win over a skittish cat rather quickly. Dogs? I don't like them, never have much either. I would never have one as a pet either. They just aren't for me. The larger and more energetic they get the more I dislike them as well.

I attached a poll, but the one I was coming up with was just too complex for what I want, so I just copped out and made a like/dislike poll for cats and dogs. We (for the most part) know each others political leanings anyway.

Discuss!
 

Kullervo

Permabanned
Joined
May 15, 2014
Messages
3,298
MBTI Type
N/A
I love dogs, my family has two lab-spaniel crosses...I posted a pic of the puppy a couple of days ago. They're both very adorable looking but the older one is a trained hunter and has over 200 possum kills now.

Cats...meh. Even if I ignored the fact that they are responsible for killing a lot of native birds here and can give people toxoplasmosis, it has been investigated that they don't give a fuck about you, either: http://io9.com/study-backs-up-what-owners-already-know-cats-dont-car-1474310844

I already knew that of course.
 

Amargith

Hotel California
Joined
Nov 5, 2008
Messages
14,717
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
4dw
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Big cat person - grew up with so they were like my dolls (never had a real interest in dolls). Love dogs as well, just aint as experienced with them as we only had one when i was growing up.

Cat behavior rambles wrt to the study posted above and toxoplasmosis inside. Enter at own risk.



Ive always likened cats to Fi for this reason - do not control me but love me for who I am, negotiate your needs and I will promise to do the same :heart:
Whereas dogs seem more Fe-based where they work together as a unit and have a social ranking system - I have your back, you have mine and we might squabble from time to time but you will always be family to me.

I prefer cats because I grew up with them and I relate to their sense of independence, need for freedom and want for cuddles :D
 

á´…eparted

passages
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
8,265
Big cat person - grew up with so they were like my dolls (never had a real interest in dolls). Love dogs as well, just aint as experienced with them as we only had one when i was growing up.

Cat behavior rambles wrt to the study posted above and toxoplasmosis inside. Enter at own risk.



Ive always likened cats to Fi for this reason - do not control me but love me for who I am, negotiate your needs and I will promise to do the same :heart:
Whereas dogs seem more Fe-based where they work together as a unit and have a social ranking system - I have your back, you have mine and we might squabble from time to time but you will always be family to me.

I prefer cats because I grew up with them and I relate to their sense of independence, need for freedom and want for cuddles :D

Wonderfully said.

In particular the part about cats being called. Cat's will answer and come to you, if they know there might be a reason. When I was growing up, our cat would come to us if we called and she could tell it was that we wanted to give her affection (and she was in the mood for it) or if she was to be given something. Or, if one of us was in distress or hurt, she'd usually come running to see what happened. She was really smart. It's funny you said that cats train us, and it's so true. My mom and I jokingly said that with her from when she was a kitten, that she was training us on how to act for what she needed. The study was flawed in that it was treating cats like dogs, and thus came to the wrong kind of conclusions. Princess (our cat) also got progressively more vocal as she got older, and my mom and I learned rather quickly to discern her calls. Interestingly (and she pointed this out to me on several occasions) she meowed less around me than she did with her (which my mom was jealous of because when my mom didn't listen, she'd be noisey!). Which makes sense as I seemed to "understand" our cat more so than my mom did.
 

Amargith

Hotel California
Joined
Nov 5, 2008
Messages
14,717
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
4dw
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
That and your cat probably figured out that your mom responds better to more vocalisation :D

They tend to personalise this shit, seriously. They know which person to approach for which desire at which time of day to yield the greatest success.

When i came into this house (of my in laws, we're house sitting while they live abroad), the family cat of 15 years old was ...well, dismayed. You see, it had trained the entire family of 6 to respond to its calls. It got wet food whenever it asked for it as there was always some person that hadn't been given the memo that the cat had already been fed, it prompted them perfectly to play doorman for him and vocally demanded attention and cuddles - all of this both during the day AND night. And they did it - coz he rotated who he bugged so it never became a point where they were like...welll, maybe we should stop giving in to that.

All wonderful, but he had also never heard a 'no', before and I quickly became the person who had to medicate him and set some boundaries as they a)weren't there, and b) when they were, they were hesitant to negotiate *any* boundaries. This also meant that occasionally, his fur was so matted as he protested to having it brushed, that he actually suffered from skin infections so....when I came in and I wasn't as...willing to cave to his every whim, we had a bit of a stand off. I also took away his wet food as it was contributing to chronic mouth infections, and replaced it with specialised dry food to help with his arthritis - he was not amused, nor were his owners, as they felt it deprived him of what he was entitled to. And while he first hyperventilated almost out of stress when I made him let me take care of those knots in his fur, he is now to the point where he protests when it gets too much and we negotiate a pause, but won't actually stress himself into oblivion. And he is starting to enjoy the brush as it come with cuddles.

He became incessantly vocal with me since I wasn't responding to what he wanted all the time, which..I tend to train out of my cats - needless whining gets ignored or followed up with something they don't like, while a silent or short, single meow to draw attention while sitting in front of me gets rewarded if I feel it was warranted. He still is vocal - part of it is due to his age, really - but has learned that if I give the sign to stop and he doesn't, a nose flick follows ( which offends him to no end or so it seems :D), so he got a lot less whiny.

We get on famously now, but yeah...that first summer, with him falling ill and me medicating him and telling him to suck it up (I was as gentle as I could), the poor thing did go through a lot. He just lost his brother before we moved in, I brought 6 extra cats and his perfectly trained family was gone. It took him a year to really warm up to me, but now we get on smoothly. We occasionally still have disagreements on what he gets to dictate and if he should heed my warnings when I give them but most of the time we see eye to eye now. We have fond cuddle sessions and he actively seeks me out now and not just when he needs something. I also get a tail-up greeting these days, instead of being ignored :D
 

á´…eparted

passages
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
8,265
That and your cat probably figured out that your mom responds better to more vocalisation :D

They tend to personalise this shit, seriously. They know which person to approach for which desire at which time of day to yield the greatest success.

When i came into this house (of my in laws, we're house sitting while they live abroad), the family cat of 15 years old was ...well, dismayed. You see, it had trained the entire family of 6 to respond to its calls. It got wet food whenever it asked for it as there was always some person that hadn't been given the memo that the cat had already been fed, it prompted them perfectly to play doorman for him and vocally demanded attention and cuddles - all of this both during the day AND night. And they did it - coz he rotated who he bugged so it never became a point where they were like...welll, maybe we should stop giving in to that.

All wonderful, but he had also never heard a 'no', before and I quickly became the person who had to medicate him and set some boundaries as they a)weren't there, and b) when they were, they were hesitant to negotiate *any* boundaries. This also meant that occasionally, his fur was so matted as he protested to having it brushed, that he actually suffered from skin infections so....when I came in and I wasn't as...willing to cave to his every whim, we had a bit of a stand off. I also took away his wet food as it was contributing to chronic mouth infections, and replaced it with specialised dry food to help with his arthritis - he was not amused, nor were his owners, as they felt it deprived him of what he was entitled to. And while he first hyperventilated almost out of stress when I made him let me take care of those knots in his fur, he is now to the point where he protests when it gets too much and we negotiate a pause, but won't actually stress himself into oblivion. And he is starting to enjoy the brush as it come with cuddles.

He became incessantly vocal with me since I wasn't responding to what he wanted all the time, which..I tend to train out of my cats - needless whining gets ignored or followed up with something they don't like, while a silent or short, single meow to draw attention while sitting in front of me gets rewarded if I feel it was warranted. He still is vocal - part of it is due to his age, really - but has learned that if I give the sign to stop and he doesn't, a nose flick follows ( which offends him to no end or so it seems :D), so he got a lot less whiny.

We get on famously now, but yeah...that first summer, with him falling ill and me medicating him and telling him to suck it up (I was as gentle as I could), the poor thing did go through a lot. He just lost his brother before we moved in, I brought 6 extra cats and his perfectly trained family was gone. It took him a year to really warm up to me, but now we get on smoothly. We occasionally still have disagreements on what he gets to dictate and if he should heed my warnings when I give them but most of the time we see eye to eye now. We have fond cuddle sessions and he actively seeks me out now and not just when he needs something. I also get a tail-up greeting these days, instead of being ignored :D

Oh jeeze that sounds like a whole bunch of bad wrapped up into one! Sounds like you did *exactly* what was needed though which is awesome! He's quite the old kitty too, and that can make then a touch senile even if they don't appear it outwardly. What amazes me about a lot of cat owners, is they wrong assume that cat's are low maintaince. Not true! It's just a different kind of maintaining that one needs to do. It sounds like the family was just taken advantage of though; lack of communication. I'm surprised they didn't notice the wet food going fast though. You over feed a cat wetfood and their poor teeth are gonna rot right out of their mouth, so they should even be watching that from a financial prospective. Dental work on a pet is NOT cheap. I'm surprised they never brushed him either. Cat's can usually be trained into enjoying brushing. Ours used to ask for it.

Now all you need is a tail up followed by a side flop into the floor at your feet and it'll be perfect :D.
 

Amargith

Hotel California
Joined
Nov 5, 2008
Messages
14,717
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
4dw
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Oh jeeze that sounds like a whole bunch of bad wrapped up into one! Sounds like you did *exactly* what was needed though which is awesome! He's quite the old kitty too, and that can make then a touch senile even if they don't appear it outwardly. What amazes me about a lot of cat owners, is they wrong assume that cat's are low maintaince. Not true! It's just a different kind of maintaining that one needs to do. It sounds like the family was just taken advantage of though; lack of communication. I'm surprised they didn't notice the wet food going fast though. You over feed a cat wetfood and their poor teeth are gonna rot right out of their mouth, so they should even be watching that from a financial prospective. Dental work on a pet is NOT cheap. I'm surprised they never brushed him either. Cat's can usually be trained into enjoying brushing. Ours used to ask for it.

Now all you need is a tail up followed by a side flop into the floor at your feet and it'll be perfect :D.

Goal already achieved :devil:

I loved that they were respectful of their cats boundaries and needs - it's better than the other extreme, but yeah, he definitely trained them instead of the other way around :D

While they did attempt to brush him, it was usually too infrequent, which means that it was painful for him with the knots already formed - and then the cat is of course not going to be pleased. I love cats who know themselves that they need some help from a brush - it's so much easier when they prompt you :D

AS for the dental work - it IS fucking expensive. And here especially - Norway is like 3 times the cost of what I paid in Belgium when it comes to veterinary bills. The thing is, dental work becomes unavoidable after the age of 7 or 8, unless you teach em how to tolerate you brushing their teeth every day. And his were...well, at 15, really bad. The doctor actually told me after I got them cleaned the first time that he'd have to come back every 3 to 6 months to have it redone and I was like...dude, Im not putting a 15 year old cat under narcosis 4 times a year, and I aint made of money. So I took some steps - like changing the food - to make it just *once* a year coz wow.

K, imma try and stop derailing your thread now :ninja: :smile:
 

EcK

The Memes Justify the End
Joined
Nov 21, 2008
Messages
7,708
MBTI Type
ENTP
Enneagram
738
Big cat person - grew up with so they were like my dolls (never had a real interest in dolls). Love dogs as well, just aint as experienced with them as we only had one when i was growing up.

Cat behavior rambles wrt to the study posted above and toxoplasmosis inside. Enter at own risk.



Ive always likened cats to Fi for this reason - do not control me but love me for who I am, negotiate your needs and I will promise to do the same :heart:
Whereas dogs seem more Fe-based where they work together as a unit and have a social ranking system - I have your back, you have mine and we might squabble from time to time but you will always be family to me.

I prefer cats because I grew up with them and I relate to their sense of independence, need for freedom and want for cuddles :D

I think mentioning that your cats ate ur dog is also kind of relevant :coffee:
 

FDG

pathwise dependent
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
5,903
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Enneagram
7w8
I'm a cat person overall, I think most cats have a more complex personality and I generally have more fun interacting with them, compared to interacting with dogs.

Dogs are great for anything task-oriented, I went hunting a couple of times and I saw dogs in their "natural environment" - just great. On the other hand, I find home dogs kind of sad, they're not meant for that kind of life.
 

Eluded_One

Building muscle memory in my brain
Joined
Mar 29, 2011
Messages
569
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
As an animal lover, I'd pick both. As an admirer of traits such as independence and judiciousness, I'd pick a cat over a dog. Most cats you can set loose in the streets and have the confidence that they'll return to you when playtime is over; as they're usually smart enough not to interact with strangers. I don't like the idea of animals having to be caged up, even in spite of dangerous conditions out in the street. If millions of lives were sacrificed in wars in order to obtain freedom, I can rationalize that freedom is more valuable than a life confined behind walls. And also, they also smell a whole lot better than dogs. Cats are my ideal pet.
 

Coriolis

Si vis pacem, para bellum
Staff member
Joined
Apr 18, 2010
Messages
27,230
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
Cats...meh. Even if I ignored the fact that they are responsible for killing a lot of native birds here and can give people toxoplasmosis, it has been investigated that they don't give a fuck about you, either: Study backs up what owners already know: Cats don't care
My garden does much better due to the efforts of my cats in small rodent control. The neighbors have noticed the effect as well. When my old cat died an untimely death, they were quite disappointed.
 

gromit

likes this
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
6,508
I used to not really like either but both are growing on me. I probably would really like dogs a lot except the one I live with sheds his light-colored hair EVERYWHERE so I have to lint roll my clothes every morning. Cats are nice in that they are lower-maintenance. But both are fun to play with, in different ways.
 

HongDou

navigating
Joined
Nov 23, 2012
Messages
5,191
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
so/sx
I'm more of a dog person. They just seem more youthful and lively than cats - even in old age.

But I'll happily snuggle with either one. :wubbie: As long as the love is there, that's all a pet owner could ask for.

The social dominance part works for me, political view does not.

But then again, this is someone who will play with his friends' dogs, cats, hamsters, mice, chinchillas, ferrets, birds, turtles, and so on. I also make a point of befriending/interacting with the animals every time I visit a zoo/aquarium, with me wanting to take 50 animals home by the end haha. I only draw the line at snakes and tarantulas. /irrational fear
 

Qlip

Post Human Post
Joined
Jul 30, 2010
Messages
8,464
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
4w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
I feel like if a cat likes you, it's because it chose to. If a dog likes you, it's because it's needy.
 

chickpea

perfect person
Joined
Sep 12, 2009
Messages
5,729
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
4w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
I like both, but prefer cats. Cats are smart assholes and dogs are clingy idiots.
 
N

ndovjtjcaqidthi

Guest
Dogs are obviously superior to cats but I do not hate cats.

Actually I do.
 

Cellmold

Wake, See, Sing, Dance
Joined
Mar 23, 2012
Messages
6,266
I don't mind either but prefer cats primarily because dogs are dependent on the owner than cats are. Which isn't to say that there are cats who aren't in a bad way temperament wise because of owners, they are just more independent.

I prefer spiders and rodents to both, though.
 

The Ü™

Permabanned
Joined
May 26, 2007
Messages
11,910
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
I'm allergic to cats. And cat shit smells worse than dog shit.
 
Top