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It's not that weird. We bred dogs for millennia to read and express human-recognizable emotional responses. They are sympathetic by design. In contrast, We bre
by OkayPhysicist 3y ago
It's not that weird. We bred dogs for millennia to read and express human-recognizable emotional responses. They are sympathetic by design. In contrast, We bred most everything else to be delicious. A more fun one is to look at people's responses to guinea pigs, which were bred for eating but now are seen as pets.
- hombre_fatal 3y agoThat may be a satisfying explanation at first pass, but it breaks down quickly under scrutiny, I think. We can recognize the emotional state of pigs and cows, probably more than even we can with cats. Certainly more than we can with rodents and other pets. I also think most people wouldn't accept a video of someone abusing a cow, pig, or even a chicken. Let's just replace dog with piglet in my comment if that helps track the point. I'd wager most people wouldn't find footage inside a slaughterhouse or factory farm very palatable. But this happens by the hundreds of millions daily.
- OkayPhysicist 3y agoCats may not emote in human terms as well as dogs, but they are unusually good among the animal kingdom at reading human emotional expression.