6 ms·

Cat People vs. Dog People

91 points by geedzmo 10y ago

GFischer 10y ago
I loved OkCupid's analysis based on data from their site, and I liked this blog post too :) . Facebook must be absolutely fascinating for researchers, I wonder if they make anonymized datasets available for universities? - Edit: they do https://snap.stanford.edu/data/egonets-Facebook.html https://snap.stanford.edu/data/egonets-Facebook.html http://www.michaelzimmer.org/2011/02/15/facebook-data-of-1-2-million-users-from-2005-released/ http://www.michaelzimmer.org/2011/02/15/facebook-data-of-1-2...
- amelius 10y ago
  I'm hoping for an analysis based on 23andme data :)
overcast 10y ago
The book and movie comparisons throw me off. It looks like the majority of dog owners in this research are women, while the majority of cat owners are men. I'd have expected those to be reversed.
- lettergram 10y ago
  Idk women like the protection a dog offers, plus cats are easier to take care of so guys may be more willing to have one. Regardless, I can't really give anything but my counter intuition; I wish I had the data Facebook has.
- lettergram 10y ago
  Idk women like the protection a dog offers, plus cats are easier to take care of so guys may be more willing to have one. Regardless, I can't really give anything but my counter intuition; I wish I had the data Facebook has.
- dominotw 10y ago
  >I'd have expected those to be reversed. Despite the 'crazy cat lady' stereotype. Cats are preferred pet for men in the past couple of years.
  - steve19 10y ago
    I don't think that is true universally (that men prefer cats). I think it's a cultural thing. http://www.businessinsider.com.au/republicans-dog-people-democrats-cats-2013-1?r=US&IR=T http://www.businessinsider.com.au/republicans-dog-people-dem... Where I live, it's definitely not true... or men at least don't admit to preferring cats. If you did an a survey of men in Dearborn, Michigan you would probably find the opposite, with significantly more men preferring cats (due to religious or cultural reasons)
    - rconti 10y ago
      Unless I missed it, they failed to say which genders and ages and so on are more likely to own cats vs dogs. They only covered single people in those breakdowns.
- schwap 10y ago
  The TV tendencies are even more confusing, where "dog people" watch both super-masculine (entourage, duck dynasty) and feminine (The Voice) shows (and cat people are apparently the stereotypical geek).
  - nol13 10y ago
    Simple really, just not a masculine/feminine thing. Dog people shows are terrible while cat people shows are interesting. (ok except maybe entourage, guilty pleasure)
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
- meric 10y ago
  The majority partners of women are men, and the majority of partners of men are women. I think for one-to-one companionship people look for compatibility rather than similarity.
- TA8aug 10y ago
  My gut reaction to the book and movie comparisons is that people who share cat photos tend to be liberal and people who share dog photos tend to be conservative (for the US definition of liberal and conservative). Maybe I'm off base. Also, note that the comparison is about people who share cat or dog photos and their Facebook friends -- not about cat or dog people and their actual friends. I'm a dog person and many of my friends are cat people, but I wouldn't be interested in seeing their cat photos on Facebook. Nor would I be posting dog photos anywhere...
  - douche 10y ago
    It's also difficult to have a real dog if you're living in a city. Dogs need space, exercise, and attention, which are in short supply the more urban you go. Additionally, it can be almost impossible to find apartments that will allow dogs over purse-size. Cats don't particularly need exercise, are small, tend to be able to entertain themselves, and for whatever reason, are easier to get permission to have in apartments[1]. So if you're a city person, it's magnitudes easier to be a cat person, if you're going to have pets at all. City people are more liberal than country people, on average. [1] I cannot stand litterboxes, hairballs, or cat urine, so this baffles me...
    - derefr 10y ago
      Suburbs count as city, though, not rural. And to me, that's a dog's niche: the detached-home-plus-yard. Dogs don't fit in apartments, but they don't really "earn their keep" on farms, either (on ranches or pastures, sure, but not farms.) Meanwhile, it's traditional to have a barn-cat to keep away vermin, even if you've also got traps.
- derefr 10y ago
  Hypothesis: this whole article ignores the selection effect of getting from "people with pets" to "people who talk about their pets on Facebook." Maybe dog-owning men, and cat-owning women, just don't think their pets need a social-media presence?
cryptica 10y ago
I used to love dogs when I was a kid, now I'm definitely a cat person. I find dogs superficial and too simple-minded. If you feed them often enough, they will like you (guaranteed) - I find this kind of relationship unsatisfying - You are the master and so the dog has no choice but to like you. Kind of like how people are inclined to laugh when their boss makes a not-so-funny joke - That's the kind of dynamic you get. Cats are more mysterious and complex. Most of the time, when a cat shows affection, their real motives are usually pretty straight forward; like how they start rubbing themselves against you only when you're physically holding their food (they don't try to hide anything). Often you get the feeling that cats don't care about you at all. In fact, they probably don't really need you (they can usually fend for themselves catching mice, lizards, birds, get food from neighbours, etc...) But sometimes, there are rare moments when a cat will show you affection without any obvious reason; and when they do, it feels a lot more genuine than the kind of affection you would get from a dog. I like cats because I like to foster relationships between equals. My cat is my friend, not my subordinate - I don't really NEED the cat and the cat doesn't really NEED me - There are no ulterior evolutionary/survival motives between us. I just don't like relationships where there is a power imbalance (even when I get to be the master). Though I suppose some could argue that it's not so different from a parent-child relationship - But then again, some parents are more strict than others...
- popmystack 10y ago
  None of this follows a linear line of thought. Dogs definitely can can show you "affection without any obvious reason." Cats can also be "bought" with food bribes just as easy as dogs. It could be argued that the whole "random affection" play applies to both dogs and cats and was brought about in an evolutionary fashion, in that being affectionate towards humans grants you a far higher chance of obtaining food and shelter. Would you consider that "fake"? I find it very weird that you're trying to prescribe a "fake" vs "real" scheme when dealing with pet's emotions without offering a real, testable theory to how we should organize our pet's "true" motivations. Just lots of assumptions, really.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- 10y ago
honkhonkpants 10y ago
This seems like quite an intrusion into people's private data. If certain other large companies decided to crawl all over your data for shits and giggles, I'm fairly sure HN would have its pitchforks out.
- asdfologist 10y ago
  What? This is orders of magnitude better than selling private data to ad companies, which is FB's main business. If of all things you choose to be outraged by aggregate statistics about cat vs. dog people, you may want to reconsider your priorities.
  - honkhonkpants 10y ago
    Is that what FB does? Or do they just use their data internally to target ads, without handing the data to the advertisers? I honestly don't know but I do know that people are always saying that Google sells your information to advertisers, and they don't. So I'm skeptical of this claim. Anyway, maybe this whole analysis was based on public profile data.
    - xanderstrike 10y ago
      If either of these companies actually sold the data they've collected they'd hurt their own competitive advantage.
    - saghm 10y ago
      In this case, I don't think the distinction is really that important; I think checking if someone is single or in a relationship to target them with an ad is more intrusive than checking if they're in a group of a few dozen thousand people who are single and like cats.
- NeutronBoy 10y ago
  You'll probably find that they didn't use any data that's not available to 'public' viewing. (Would be interesting to hear about their sampling methodology)
TheAceOfHearts 10y ago
This is a really nice blog post; I hope we keep seeing more posts like this coming from Facebook. I wonder why we haven't seen something similar from Google. Surely they have access to as much or more data? Perhaps Google does publish similar blog posts, and I'm just not aware of where to look for them? In any case, the results presented definitely didn't match my expectations. Although upon giving it a bit of thought, I can see how introverted cat people are more likely to have classic "nerdy" interests like scifi, fantasy, anime, etc.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- RickS 10y ago
  >I wonder why we haven't seen something similar from Google I imagine google spends a great deal of effort to avoid the "we know everything about you" stereotype
  - derefr 10y ago
    A.K.A. "Don't Seem Evil."
narrator 10y ago
Here's some fun dinner party conversation you can source from this article: dog people like "Fifty Shades of Grey", cat people like "A Clockwork Orange". Discuss.
- bluejekyll 10y ago
  Actually, I was surprised at the number of dark movies vs. fun movies that cat people vs. dog people liked. Based on that, I should be a cat person, but I enjoy dogs much more.
alonmower 10y ago
It's funny, I grew up with both cats and dogs and like them both (and one observation I've had is that most people I know tend to like whichever pets they had when they were younger, fear of the unknown and all that). In my circle of friends in SF/Oakland cats are definitely more prevalent but I think a lot of that has to do with how expensive owning a dog here is. My roommate has two cats but I'd probably get a dog if it wouldn't cost me so much. You need: 1) An apartment/house that allows dogs. This means you either own your own property, pay out the nose for a newer development that allows pets, or if you're in the lucky few you may have a rent controlled place lets you have them 2) Something for them to do during the day. This means you either work at a place that lets you have pets, have enough money to pay a dogwalker, or have enough private indoor/outdoor space where you can leave them dog during the day (see #1) 3) Places to put them while you travel, but most of your friends can't have dogs at their places so this usually means paying a dogsitter I imagine it's similar in places like NYC but it's weird for me to think of owning a dog as a status symbol
balls187 10y ago
Regardless of your choice, definitely adopt from a shelter! I have two adopted animals, a cat and a dog (and a 2nd beagle from a breeder). If you can provide a forever home to an animal, you will be rewarded for it.
rm999 10y ago
Cool analysis, but the results seem off to me based on my own social network (which line up with a lot of common stereotypes). I think I know why. The majority of people I know who have cats don't post photos of their cats on social media, but it's pretty mainstream to post photos of a dog. This reflects social habits with pets in general: at work the dog people regularly talk about their dogs, e.g. how they took them to the park on Saturday. I rarely hear any discussion about cats at work even though I know more of my coworkers own them. I think this leads to an "alternative", quirky, less social bias on the cat people. There's probably some bias on the dog people, but I imagine far less of one.
beefsack 10y ago
I wonder how many people are on Facebook without even knowing they're being profiled like this. Sure, this is an interesting article, but this minuscule piece alludes to how much they know about the people on their platform.
CM30 10y ago
I wonder how much of this is an introvert/extravert thing? I mean, the article already points out that dog people will likely have more friends and cat people are more likely to be single, so I suspect the difference in preferences may depend on that aspect of someone's personality. Cats are perfect for introverts; they look after themselves, don't tend to do much in the day, don't need walks and hence can be mostly left alone (or left to sit next to you) while you browse the internet or work at home. Dogs require more excercise, commitment, etc. So if you gain energy from being around others, what better way than to go for two walks a day round the streets/local park? So extraverts likely choose dogs, and introverts likely choose cats.
- vacri 10y ago
  I think this is the right track, but perhaps not intro/extro, and simply what people want from a pet. Want a constant companion? Get a dog. Want another thing sharing the space, that can look after itself? Get a cat. Want something pretty to look at that knows it's place? Get a fish...
- nhumrich 10y ago
  I'm very much an introvert but I love my dog, and absolutely am not a cat person.
  - brokenmachine 10y ago
    I'm the same. I'm generally introverted but I loved my dog (RIP) more than anything. I feel like a battered spouse when I'm forced to take care of an ungrateful cat.
- nol13 10y ago
  I walk my cat..
aaron695 10y ago
My understanding is research shows pets are good for well being and dogs are better than cats. Which would imply part of these differences are causation.
dav43 10y ago
Here is Australia, I don't like cats because they kill the native wildlife. They're a pest. I have also seen what cats can do after travelling to some Greek islands. Almost zero wildlife on lands. No prevelance of birds. You wake up to silence. For this reason, I'll always be a dog person.
- douche 10y ago
  Dogs can get after the wildlife too, although they aren't quite as relentless and psychopathic. My cattle dog was moling yesterday - I looked up from my lawn chair to hear frantic chittering and see the poor varmint whipped high in the sky.
- vacri 10y ago
  I always think it's funny when citydwellers in Australia make this complaint. Somehow cats killing the native wildlife is a reason not to have them in suburbia, but no-one bats an eye at all the McMansions and asphalt everywhere destroying the previously native flora and fauna. Also, the last house I lived in had a bloody wattlebird nearby. I'd much rather a cat eat it and wake up to silence than wake up to that thing at 4am every morning...
  - brokenmachine 10y ago
    There is wildlife in suburbia. Also cats released in suburbia quickly make it into the bush. They don't stay in the suburbs.
    - vacri 10y ago
      Well, so does urban sprawl. Sure, you should still get your cats desexed, but seriously, cats have had less impact on native fauna than humans have (after all, even if nothing else in terms of our own impact, we brought cats... and cane toads... and foxes... and pigs... and rats... and and and...)
      - brokenmachine 10y ago
crispyambulance 10y ago
Meh. There really is only one thing that makes me cat person: Cats don't need someone to take them out to POOP. Somehow, cats made the intellectual leap that dogs can't seem to grasp. That is, shitting in a box and covering it up. Brilliant.
- brokenmachine 10y ago
  You could easily train a dog go in a litterbox, but that would be gross. Just as gross, actually, as it is to keep a litterbox full of toxoplasmosis in your house. If cats are so amazingly intelligent to always go in a box, why is there so much cat poop in the gardens of my apartment complex? The gardeners have actually threatened to leave, strata has notified the cat owners (not that they care because they don't take responsibility for their "pets", they just roam free).
metaphorical 10y ago
> "dog people are more outgoing, measured in terms of Facebook friends." Or, perhaps, cat people just don't like adding friends on Facebook as much as dog people!
icantdrive55 10y ago
I like dogs. I like cats. I'm just very allergic to cats. It has seriously been a barrier to whom I hang around with. The allergy is genetic. My father had a worse allergic reaction than myself. My father found a person he liked enough to try to find a work around. This was quite a milestone for my dad. Growing up, my father was just a rigid guy. There were no "work arounds" Well, when his girlfriend came over he had a separate set of clothes she would put on--free of cat allergens. Even with that preparation he ended up in the emergency room three times. I was there once when he had an Asthma attack. I used two epi pens, and he still couldn't breath. A cat tried to be friends with me last summer. I was working on my transmission at 1 a.m.. This little cat started to meow behind my head. He actually startled me. Well I got up, and checked for a collar. No collar. He followed me around the house for the following week. What ever chore I did, he was there. For weeks he would show up at the door with a mouse in his mouth. "I brought dinner." The mice were usually alive, but in shock. I would let them loose on my Lawyers property. This cat wanted a new home so bad, he would climb up the side of the house and peer into Windows. I'm still not sure how he got so high. Just when I decided he could live in the garage, he showed up one night with a collar, and a number. I called the number, and the owner said when they got a puppy a few years ago; he decided to look for a new home. The owner said he would be gone for a week at a time, but always came home. This cat still visits a least once a month. He usually takes a nap, and leaves.
Blorqx 10y ago
As a human-presenting, non-binary, therian (felinekin), I feel I must weight in. Gender is a binary social construct used for oppression and it is disgusting to project your closed minded, heteronormative, racist ideas of gender on innocent animals who have no way of consenting. Using the word "pussy" to refer to vaginal sexual organs OR to a feline animal is a micro-aggression against all womyn AND all feline-identifying otherkin and is the type of privileged, sexist language that enables our oppression.
fellellor 10y ago
Some of the comments here try to justify their love for either species by arguing that the other is inferior in some way. I find this very silly. Why can't you just like cats, or dogs or both? There doesn't have to be any objective reasoning behind it other than simple personal preference.
hokkos 10y ago
Beyond creepy, and cute dog/cat images won't make it less.

91 points by geedzmo 10y ago

I loved OkCupid's analysis based on data from their site, and I liked this blog post too :) . Facebook must be absolutely fascinating for researchers, I wonder if they make anonymized datasets available for universities? - Edit: they do https://snap.stanford.edu/data/egonets-Facebook.html https://snap.stanford.edu/data/egonets-Facebook.html http://www.michaelzimmer.org/2011/02/15/facebook-data-of-1-2-million-users-from-2005-released/ http://www.michaelzimmer.org/2011/02/15/facebook-data-of-1-2...

amelius 10y ago
I'm hoping for an analysis based on 23andme data :)

overcast 10y ago

The book and movie comparisons throw me off. It looks like the majority of dog owners in this research are women, while the majority of cat owners are men. I'd have expected those to be reversed.

lettergram 10y ago
Idk women like the protection a dog offers, plus cats are easier to take care of so guys may be more willing to have one. Regardless, I can't really give anything but my counter intuition; I wish I had the data Facebook has.
lettergram 10y ago
Idk women like the protection a dog offers, plus cats are easier to take care of so guys may be more willing to have one. Regardless, I can't really give anything but my counter intuition; I wish I had the data Facebook has.
dominotw 10y ago
>I'd have expected those to be reversed. Despite the 'crazy cat lady' stereotype. Cats are preferred pet for men in the past couple of years.
- steve19 10y ago
  I don't think that is true universally (that men prefer cats). I think it's a cultural thing. http://www.businessinsider.com.au/republicans-dog-people-democrats-cats-2013-1?r=US&IR=T http://www.businessinsider.com.au/republicans-dog-people-dem... Where I live, it's definitely not true... or men at least don't admit to preferring cats. If you did an a survey of men in Dearborn, Michigan you would probably find the opposite, with significantly more men preferring cats (due to religious or cultural reasons)
  - rconti 10y ago
    Unless I missed it, they failed to say which genders and ages and so on are more likely to own cats vs dogs. They only covered single people in those breakdowns.
schwap 10y ago
The TV tendencies are even more confusing, where "dog people" watch both super-masculine (entourage, duck dynasty) and feminine (The Voice) shows (and cat people are apparently the stereotypical geek).
- nol13 10y ago
  Simple really, just not a masculine/feminine thing. Dog people shows are terrible while cat people shows are interesting. (ok except maybe entourage, guilty pleasure)
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
meric 10y ago
The majority partners of women are men, and the majority of partners of men are women. I think for one-to-one companionship people look for compatibility rather than similarity.
TA8aug 10y ago
My gut reaction to the book and movie comparisons is that people who share cat photos tend to be liberal and people who share dog photos tend to be conservative (for the US definition of liberal and conservative). Maybe I'm off base. Also, note that the comparison is about people who share cat or dog photos and their Facebook friends -- not about cat or dog people and their actual friends. I'm a dog person and many of my friends are cat people, but I wouldn't be interested in seeing their cat photos on Facebook. Nor would I be posting dog photos anywhere...
- douche 10y ago
  It's also difficult to have a real dog if you're living in a city. Dogs need space, exercise, and attention, which are in short supply the more urban you go. Additionally, it can be almost impossible to find apartments that will allow dogs over purse-size. Cats don't particularly need exercise, are small, tend to be able to entertain themselves, and for whatever reason, are easier to get permission to have in apartments[1]. So if you're a city person, it's magnitudes easier to be a cat person, if you're going to have pets at all. City people are more liberal than country people, on average. [1] I cannot stand litterboxes, hairballs, or cat urine, so this baffles me...
  - derefr 10y ago
    Suburbs count as city, though, not rural. And to me, that's a dog's niche: the detached-home-plus-yard. Dogs don't fit in apartments, but they don't really "earn their keep" on farms, either (on ranches or pastures, sure, but not farms.) Meanwhile, it's traditional to have a barn-cat to keep away vermin, even if you've also got traps.
derefr 10y ago
Hypothesis: this whole article ignores the selection effect of getting from "people with pets" to "people who talk about their pets on Facebook." Maybe dog-owning men, and cat-owning women, just don't think their pets need a social-media presence?

cryptica 10y ago

I used to love dogs when I was a kid, now I'm definitely a cat person. I find dogs superficial and too simple-minded. If you feed them often enough, they will like you (guaranteed) - I find this kind of relationship unsatisfying - You are the master and so the dog has no choice but to like you. Kind of like how people are inclined to laugh when their boss makes a not-so-funny joke - That's the kind of dynamic you get. Cats are more mysterious and complex. Most of the time, when a cat shows affection, their real motives are usually pretty straight forward; like how they start rubbing themselves against you only when you're physically holding their food (they don't try to hide anything). Often you get the feeling that cats don't care about you at all. In fact, they probably don't really need you (they can usually fend for themselves catching mice, lizards, birds, get food from neighbours, etc...) But sometimes, there are rare moments when a cat will show you affection without any obvious reason; and when they do, it feels a lot more genuine than the kind of affection you would get from a dog. I like cats because I like to foster relationships between equals. My cat is my friend, not my subordinate - I don't really NEED the cat and the cat doesn't really NEED me - There are no ulterior evolutionary/survival motives between us. I just don't like relationships where there is a power imbalance (even when I get to be the master). Though I suppose some could argue that it's not so different from a parent-child relationship - But then again, some parents are more strict than others...

popmystack 10y ago
None of this follows a linear line of thought. Dogs definitely can can show you "affection without any obvious reason." Cats can also be "bought" with food bribes just as easy as dogs. It could be argued that the whole "random affection" play applies to both dogs and cats and was brought about in an evolutionary fashion, in that being affectionate towards humans grants you a far higher chance of obtaining food and shelter. Would you consider that "fake"? I find it very weird that you're trying to prescribe a "fake" vs "real" scheme when dealing with pet's emotions without offering a real, testable theory to how we should organize our pet's "true" motivations. Just lots of assumptions, really.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
10y ago

honkhonkpants 10y ago

This seems like quite an intrusion into people's private data. If certain other large companies decided to crawl all over your data for shits and giggles, I'm fairly sure HN would have its pitchforks out.

asdfologist 10y ago
What? This is orders of magnitude better than selling private data to ad companies, which is FB's main business. If of all things you choose to be outraged by aggregate statistics about cat vs. dog people, you may want to reconsider your priorities.
- honkhonkpants 10y ago
  Is that what FB does? Or do they just use their data internally to target ads, without handing the data to the advertisers? I honestly don't know but I do know that people are always saying that Google sells your information to advertisers, and they don't. So I'm skeptical of this claim. Anyway, maybe this whole analysis was based on public profile data.
  - xanderstrike 10y ago
    If either of these companies actually sold the data they've collected they'd hurt their own competitive advantage.
  - saghm 10y ago
    In this case, I don't think the distinction is really that important; I think checking if someone is single or in a relationship to target them with an ad is more intrusive than checking if they're in a group of a few dozen thousand people who are single and like cats.
NeutronBoy 10y ago
You'll probably find that they didn't use any data that's not available to 'public' viewing. (Would be interesting to hear about their sampling methodology)

TheAceOfHearts 10y ago

This is a really nice blog post; I hope we keep seeing more posts like this coming from Facebook. I wonder why we haven't seen something similar from Google. Surely they have access to as much or more data? Perhaps Google does publish similar blog posts, and I'm just not aware of where to look for them? In any case, the results presented definitely didn't match my expectations. Although upon giving it a bit of thought, I can see how introverted cat people are more likely to have classic "nerdy" interests like scifi, fantasy, anime, etc.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
RickS 10y ago
>I wonder why we haven't seen something similar from Google I imagine google spends a great deal of effort to avoid the "we know everything about you" stereotype
- derefr 10y ago
  A.K.A. "Don't Seem Evil."

narrator 10y ago

Here's some fun dinner party conversation you can source from this article: dog people like "Fifty Shades of Grey", cat people like "A Clockwork Orange". Discuss.

bluejekyll 10y ago
Actually, I was surprised at the number of dark movies vs. fun movies that cat people vs. dog people liked. Based on that, I should be a cat person, but I enjoy dogs much more.

alonmower 10y ago

It's funny, I grew up with both cats and dogs and like them both (and one observation I've had is that most people I know tend to like whichever pets they had when they were younger, fear of the unknown and all that). In my circle of friends in SF/Oakland cats are definitely more prevalent but I think a lot of that has to do with how expensive owning a dog here is. My roommate has two cats but I'd probably get a dog if it wouldn't cost me so much. You need: 1) An apartment/house that allows dogs. This means you either own your own property, pay out the nose for a newer development that allows pets, or if you're in the lucky few you may have a rent controlled place lets you have them 2) Something for them to do during the day. This means you either work at a place that lets you have pets, have enough money to pay a dogwalker, or have enough private indoor/outdoor space where you can leave them dog during the day (see #1) 3) Places to put them while you travel, but most of your friends can't have dogs at their places so this usually means paying a dogsitter I imagine it's similar in places like NYC but it's weird for me to think of owning a dog as a status symbol

balls187 10y ago

Regardless of your choice, definitely adopt from a shelter! I have two adopted animals, a cat and a dog (and a 2nd beagle from a breeder). If you can provide a forever home to an animal, you will be rewarded for it.

rm999 10y ago

Cool analysis, but the results seem off to me based on my own social network (which line up with a lot of common stereotypes). I think I know why. The majority of people I know who have cats don't post photos of their cats on social media, but it's pretty mainstream to post photos of a dog. This reflects social habits with pets in general: at work the dog people regularly talk about their dogs, e.g. how they took them to the park on Saturday. I rarely hear any discussion about cats at work even though I know more of my coworkers own them. I think this leads to an "alternative", quirky, less social bias on the cat people. There's probably some bias on the dog people, but I imagine far less of one.

beefsack 10y ago

I wonder how many people are on Facebook without even knowing they're being profiled like this. Sure, this is an interesting article, but this minuscule piece alludes to how much they know about the people on their platform.

CM30 10y ago

I wonder how much of this is an introvert/extravert thing? I mean, the article already points out that dog people will likely have more friends and cat people are more likely to be single, so I suspect the difference in preferences may depend on that aspect of someone's personality. Cats are perfect for introverts; they look after themselves, don't tend to do much in the day, don't need walks and hence can be mostly left alone (or left to sit next to you) while you browse the internet or work at home. Dogs require more excercise, commitment, etc. So if you gain energy from being around others, what better way than to go for two walks a day round the streets/local park? So extraverts likely choose dogs, and introverts likely choose cats.

vacri 10y ago
I think this is the right track, but perhaps not intro/extro, and simply what people want from a pet. Want a constant companion? Get a dog. Want another thing sharing the space, that can look after itself? Get a cat. Want something pretty to look at that knows it's place? Get a fish...
nhumrich 10y ago
I'm very much an introvert but I love my dog, and absolutely am not a cat person.
- brokenmachine 10y ago
  I'm the same. I'm generally introverted but I loved my dog (RIP) more than anything. I feel like a battered spouse when I'm forced to take care of an ungrateful cat.
nol13 10y ago
I walk my cat..

aaron695 10y ago

My understanding is research shows pets are good for well being and dogs are better than cats. Which would imply part of these differences are causation.

dav43 10y ago

Here is Australia, I don't like cats because they kill the native wildlife. They're a pest. I have also seen what cats can do after travelling to some Greek islands. Almost zero wildlife on lands. No prevelance of birds. You wake up to silence. For this reason, I'll always be a dog person.

douche 10y ago
Dogs can get after the wildlife too, although they aren't quite as relentless and psychopathic. My cattle dog was moling yesterday - I looked up from my lawn chair to hear frantic chittering and see the poor varmint whipped high in the sky.
vacri 10y ago
I always think it's funny when citydwellers in Australia make this complaint. Somehow cats killing the native wildlife is a reason not to have them in suburbia, but no-one bats an eye at all the McMansions and asphalt everywhere destroying the previously native flora and fauna. Also, the last house I lived in had a bloody wattlebird nearby. I'd much rather a cat eat it and wake up to silence than wake up to that thing at 4am every morning...
- brokenmachine 10y ago
  There is wildlife in suburbia. Also cats released in suburbia quickly make it into the bush. They don't stay in the suburbs.
  - vacri 10y ago
    Well, so does urban sprawl. Sure, you should still get your cats desexed, but seriously, cats have had less impact on native fauna than humans have (after all, even if nothing else in terms of our own impact, we brought cats... and cane toads... and foxes... and pigs... and rats... and and and...)
    - brokenmachine 10y ago

crispyambulance 10y ago

Meh. There really is only one thing that makes me cat person: Cats don't need someone to take them out to POOP. Somehow, cats made the intellectual leap that dogs can't seem to grasp. That is, shitting in a box and covering it up. Brilliant.

brokenmachine 10y ago
You could easily train a dog go in a litterbox, but that would be gross. Just as gross, actually, as it is to keep a litterbox full of toxoplasmosis in your house. If cats are so amazingly intelligent to always go in a box, why is there so much cat poop in the gardens of my apartment complex? The gardeners have actually threatened to leave, strata has notified the cat owners (not that they care because they don't take responsibility for their "pets", they just roam free).

metaphorical 10y ago

> "dog people are more outgoing, measured in terms of Facebook friends." Or, perhaps, cat people just don't like adding friends on Facebook as much as dog people!

icantdrive55 10y ago

I like dogs. I like cats. I'm just very allergic to cats. It has seriously been a barrier to whom I hang around with. The allergy is genetic. My father had a worse allergic reaction than myself. My father found a person he liked enough to try to find a work around. This was quite a milestone for my dad. Growing up, my father was just a rigid guy. There were no "work arounds" Well, when his girlfriend came over he had a separate set of clothes she would put on--free of cat allergens. Even with that preparation he ended up in the emergency room three times. I was there once when he had an Asthma attack. I used two epi pens, and he still couldn't breath. A cat tried to be friends with me last summer. I was working on my transmission at 1 a.m.. This little cat started to meow behind my head. He actually startled me. Well I got up, and checked for a collar. No collar. He followed me around the house for the following week. What ever chore I did, he was there. For weeks he would show up at the door with a mouse in his mouth. "I brought dinner." The mice were usually alive, but in shock. I would let them loose on my Lawyers property. This cat wanted a new home so bad, he would climb up the side of the house and peer into Windows. I'm still not sure how he got so high. Just when I decided he could live in the garage, he showed up one night with a collar, and a number. I called the number, and the owner said when they got a puppy a few years ago; he decided to look for a new home. The owner said he would be gone for a week at a time, but always came home. This cat still visits a least once a month. He usually takes a nap, and leaves.

Blorqx 10y ago

As a human-presenting, non-binary, therian (felinekin), I feel I must weight in. Gender is a binary social construct used for oppression and it is disgusting to project your closed minded, heteronormative, racist ideas of gender on innocent animals who have no way of consenting. Using the word "pussy" to refer to vaginal sexual organs OR to a feline animal is a micro-aggression against all womyn AND all feline-identifying otherkin and is the type of privileged, sexist language that enables our oppression.

fellellor 10y ago

Some of the comments here try to justify their love for either species by arguing that the other is inferior in some way. I find this very silly. Why can't you just like cats, or dogs or both? There doesn't have to be any objective reasoning behind it other than simple personal preference.

hokkos 10y ago

Beyond creepy, and cute dog/cat images won't make it less.