4 ms·
>I've seen my cat to be frightened by sudden appearance in the mirror just to relax in about 0.5 s. Clearly not enough time to decide if the creature in the mir
by literallycancer 10y ago
>I've seen my cat to be frightened by sudden appearance in the mirror just to relax in about 0.5 s. Clearly not enough time to decide if the creature in the mirror is harmless..
Why isn't it enough time to decide whether the reflection is harmless? Not my area of expertise, but I'd expect humans to be able to parse a face or a even posture for signs of imminent aggression in that time easily. Many other animals should be able to do the same.
I'd say we are highly optimized for this, since the biggest threat to humans have been other humans for most of history, and quick judgement can literally decide who lives and who dies.
- tbabb 10y agoTrue, though if the reaction time / interest level is different from the reaction to a real (non-threatening) cat, it can still tell you something. (In my experience they're pretty clearly different).
- ysavir 10y agoUh, nope, if I find a body-sized mirror in an unexpected place, I'll probably have a half second of "stranger dang-" before I cool down.
- NobleLie 10y agoWell, the reaction of a frightened cat isnt, by design, one that appears friendly. They usually jump and get a puffy tail. If the cat observes his reflection jumping and getting a puffy tail, itd make sense for the cat to assume danger, for he just ran into another cat whom got freaked out seeing him. That is, if the cat doesnt recognize itself rather quickly