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Mini: The Cat's Meow · Why We Do What We Do

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Why we Do what we Do. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to Why We Do what we Do Mini. I'm your
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  Speaker 1: host Abraham and I'm your host Shane. We are a
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  Speaker 1: psychology podcast. We talk about the things that humans and
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  Speaker 1: non human animals do. And this is a mini which
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  Speaker 1: means that it is short, and so we're going to
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  Speaker 1: do a quick exploration into a topic of thing and
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  Speaker 1: then get out of there and then that's it. That's
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  Speaker 1: a mini.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and there are a lot of fun and so
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  Speaker 2: today we're gonna talk about cats.
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  Speaker 1: Indeed, we've talked about cats before. We're gonna do it
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  Speaker 1: again because I love cats and they do weird and
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  Speaker 1: interesting things that often seem a little elusive to us,
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  Speaker 1: and they're criticized for that, but I think that they're
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  Speaker 1: interesting and I like them a lot. So Also, this
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  Speaker 1: is just a thing that I heard and I wanted
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  Speaker 1: to talk about.
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  Speaker 2: So I don't have cats that did not grow up
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  Speaker 2: with cats, so cat behavior in cat life is a
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  Speaker 2: unique thing to me.
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  Speaker 1: Very fair. And before we jump into the rest of
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  Speaker 1: this topic, I would like to say that if you
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  Speaker 1: like what you hear today would like to support us,
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  Speaker 1: a review that is positive and nice in five stars.
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  Speaker 1: Like and subscribe, go tell a friend, and you can
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  Speaker 1: support us on Patreon. I'll talk more about those ways
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  Speaker 1: that you can support us at the end of this discussion.
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  Speaker 1: But I think we're ready to really dive into this. Yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: let's do it. Okay, if you have ever seen feral cats,
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  Speaker 1: these are cats that like are not used to humans,
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  Speaker 1: let's put it that way. Sure, if you've ever seen
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  Speaker 1: them interacting with one another, you may have noticed that
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  Speaker 1: they do very little mewing. And so following this logic,
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  Speaker 1: it is believed that cats only meow when they're interacting
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  Speaker 1: with and when they're around humans, and that's kind of
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  Speaker 1: a strange thing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a little bit weird. So in this many
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  Speaker 2: we're going to explore the idea of cat's meow humans,
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  Speaker 2: whether this claim is accurate, what it means, and how
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  Speaker 2: to respond. That's a lot for many, But I think
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  Speaker 2: that we've got some solid answers, and I.
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  Speaker 1: Think that we can do it. I think that we
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  Speaker 1: can be efficient when pressed to do so.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like Arnold Schwarzenegger said to Bill Hater one time,
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  Speaker 2: show me a capability.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know the reference. That sounds great.
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  Speaker 2: He was working on a set. He told Bill Hater
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  Speaker 2: to go find somebody and then was like, you can
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  Speaker 2: do it, show me a capability.
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  Speaker 1: That's amazing. Love that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so weird.
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  Speaker 1: So one source that I found for this indicated that
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  Speaker 1: cats have one of the largest ranges of different vocalizations
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  Speaker 1: found in nature outside of like birds and then maybe humans. Sure,
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  Speaker 1: so cats do all kinds of really interesting sounds. They meow,
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  Speaker 1: they yowl, they hiss, they growl, they trill, they chirp,
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  Speaker 1: and they purr and they can do so. They can
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  Speaker 1: do a lot of different sounds in their range, which
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  Speaker 1: seems to be somewhat unique in the animal kingdom.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of strange. So let's jump right into
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  Speaker 2: the initial question that got us here. You cats only
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  Speaker 2: meow at humans? Well, the answer is kind of yeah,
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  Speaker 2: which is, like, I think, very fascinating. Yeah, there's not
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  Speaker 2: a ton of research on this, but the studies that
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  Speaker 2: have been done that do and the ones that do
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  Speaker 2: exist reported that feral cats will hiss, growl, per, and
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  Speaker 2: yowl at each other. Further, mother cats will trill and
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  Speaker 2: chirp at their kittens and chirp at prey animals.
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  Speaker 1: But they rarely meow at each other, which is interesting.
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  Speaker 1: Not never, but rarely Okay. Around humans, however, they tend
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  Speaker 1: to meow and kind of meow a lot, maybe as
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  Speaker 1: the most common sound that you'll hear out of them,
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  Speaker 1: aside from maybe purs if they were raised around humans.
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  Speaker 1: If they grew up away from humans, they're actually still
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  Speaker 1: unlikely to meow or at least meow very much when
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  Speaker 1: they are later around humans. But if they're grow up
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  Speaker 1: around us and they're used to us, then they will
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  Speaker 1: meow at us. If they grow up away from us
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  Speaker 1: and then are exposed to us later, we still will
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  Speaker 1: probably not hear very much meowing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, which is really weird. Now, the reasons are largely
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  Speaker 2: speculated upon, but there are some rational arguments based on observations. First,
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  Speaker 2: it's important to understand that many many other species communicate
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  Speaker 2: using things other than sounds, often through smells.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, smells are like actually a really common and
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  Speaker 1: important way that many species communicate with one another. It
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  Speaker 1: might actually be worth doing a full length on because
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  Speaker 1: it's pretty interesting how often different sens, specially urine, are
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  Speaker 1: used to communicate and within numbers of a species and
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  Speaker 1: how effective it is. Like it's hard for us to
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  Speaker 1: wrap our heads around, but like that actually can convey
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  Speaker 1: a ton of information as the various smells you get
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  Speaker 1: pheromones and other sort of bodily odors and urine and ads.
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  Speaker 1: All right, we're back. Animals do not communicate using ads,
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  Speaker 1: they're too good for that. But that's but if I'm
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  Speaker 1: gonna categorize things that include urine, I may as well ads.
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  Speaker 2: Sure that makes sense, you know, it's I was thinking
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  Speaker 2: about this, like when it comes to smells, Like human
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  Speaker 2: sense of smell is so not great compared to like
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  Speaker 2: the rest of the animal world. Yeah, like it makes
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  Speaker 2: sense they wouldn't be as important for us, right, Like
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  Speaker 2: we're just kind of like, Okay, sure I can smell this,
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  Speaker 2: but yeah, like I can see it and hear it
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  Speaker 2: better than I can smell it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, but yeah, So before the break, we were
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  Speaker 1: talking about the fact that that animals often use smell
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  Speaker 1: to communicate.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so humans have a comparatively extremely weak sense of
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  Speaker 2: smell compared to other non human animals and have evolved
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  Speaker 2: to communicate primarily through auditory visual cues. Understanding this, it
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  Speaker 2: is helpful to point out that the method cats often
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  Speaker 2: use to communicate, smell, is completely ineffective in communicating with humans.
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  Speaker 2: So we can't smell you as well as you want
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  Speaker 2: us to smell you, So we can't communicate with you
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  Speaker 2: because we can't do that.
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  Speaker 1: So that's kind of the one of the prevailing hypotheses
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  Speaker 1: here is that the reason that they turn to me
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  Speaker 1: owing is because they can't use maybe try to use smell,
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  Speaker 1: but it doesn't do anything. But on top of that,
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  Speaker 1: and another person pointed out that meowing somewhat mimics what
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  Speaker 1: humans do to communicate to one another. This sort of smooth, continuous,
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  Speaker 1: articulated dynamic vocalization is what they hear us do to
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  Speaker 1: each other. Is like it's like humans are walking around
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  Speaker 1: meowing at each other, So cat's meow at us too,
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  Speaker 1: and it works when they do this to us, We
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  Speaker 1: behave with respect to meows. We don't behave with respect
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  Speaker 1: to their smells that they maybe are trying to use
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  Speaker 1: but are not effective at all. So as that is
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  Speaker 1: the tool that they have, that is the tool that
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  Speaker 1: they use.
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  Speaker 2: Makes sense. So how well do we respond to meals?
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  Speaker 2: Now many of us think we are great, but science
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  Speaker 2: is once again here to prove us wrong. I love
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  Speaker 2: I love a good study.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I love writing this proposal too, to be like, we're
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  Speaker 2: going to do this study on this particular thing, which
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  Speaker 2: is a lot of fun. Like I would love to
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  Speaker 2: be on the IRAB and be like.
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  Speaker 1: What the hell are we talking about here, but like
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  Speaker 1: in a fun way.
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  Speaker 2: Right, So, Yeah, if I were on this Irab, I'd go,
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  Speaker 2: that's an interesting question. I want to see how this
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  Speaker 2: plays out.
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  Speaker 1: Fair.
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  Speaker 2: So a twenty twenty study in animals, great title for
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  Speaker 2: a journal, right. It asked people to rank how empathetic
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  Speaker 2: they were, whether they were cat owners, and how much
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  Speaker 2: they liked cats. Then they had them listened to cats
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  Speaker 2: meowing in three different contexts, waiting for food, isolation, and brushing,
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  Speaker 2: and asked them to choose which situation the cat might
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  Speaker 2: be in. People who owned cats were the most accurate,
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  Speaker 2: although still not perfect at identifying the context of the meal,
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  Speaker 2: but most people were basically at chance levels of accuracy.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. So they'd hear the different meals and they would
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  Speaker 1: sort of try and guess what the situation was. And
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  Speaker 1: I think this was even multiple choice, Like they had
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  Speaker 1: a one in three chance of guessing exactly and they
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  Speaker 1: were not guessing very correctly, but the people who did
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  Speaker 1: own cats were the most accurate, even though they still
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  Speaker 1: weren't completely accurate. The point is that cat's meowing is
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  Speaker 1: a way to communicate, usually when there was some motivation.
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  Speaker 1: That might be things like food, as is indicated here,
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  Speaker 1: waiting for food, escaping to another area, which often just
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  Speaker 1: means like getting some kind of barrier out of the way,
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  Speaker 1: or some other reason that they might have for example,
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  Speaker 1: they're being brushed or harassed, or like they are just
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  Speaker 1: trying to get your attention or something like. There are
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  Speaker 1: various motivations they might have, but whatever it is, the
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  Speaker 1: strategy of meow is pretty effective at accomplishing whatever they
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  Speaker 1: need to have accomplished with humans around.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, so of note, cats may start to me
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  Speaker 2: out more as they get older, and if they start
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  Speaker 2: to lose their hearing or develop neurodegenerative issues such as
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  Speaker 2: Alzheimer's disease. Sometimes this helps them orient in their environment,
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  Speaker 2: sometimes because they are confused or need help, or for
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  Speaker 2: reasons that we just don't understand yet.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, but it is a thing that's been observed that
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  Speaker 1: as they get older that might start to be a
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  Speaker 1: thing and if you notice changes in their mewing behavior,
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  Speaker 1: it might be worth taking them to a vet and
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  Speaker 1: communicating this yeah, because it could be something like a
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  Speaker 1: neurodegenerative illness of some sort. Sure, when cats meow, how
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  Speaker 1: you deal with it. Ignoring the cat's meow is likely
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  Speaker 1: to your detriment if you're trying to care for the
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  Speaker 1: creature at least, and it may not even stop it
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  Speaker 1: from happening. It's not necessarily attention. It's like a specific
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  Speaker 1: outcome they're trying to get. Although ignoring it does not
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  Speaker 1: provide that outcome. It also doesn't necessarily stop the motivating
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  Speaker 1: situation from happening, so there's still a reason to continue
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  Speaker 1: engaging in that behavior. And honestly, I like to think
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  Speaker 1: about the fact that we should be so lucky that
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  Speaker 1: our pets are able and willing to communicate with us,
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  Speaker 1: rather than just sit there and silently suffer, when we
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  Speaker 1: would do something about it if we could. Like I
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  Speaker 1: love turtles. I think they're amazing, and I would probably
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  Speaker 1: have a pet turtle if I felt the need to
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  Speaker 1: have ownership over creatures. Maybe it was a rescue or something,
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  Speaker 1: but like if a turtle was suffering, I would basically
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  Speaker 1: have no idea. It would just sit there being miserable,
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  Speaker 1: and I would be like, hey, look you're looking good today,
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  Speaker 1: here's some food, and then go about the deal the day.
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  Speaker 1: So like the fact that we have a pet that
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  Speaker 1: can say like I'm in some sort of distress very
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  Speaker 1: helpful as someone who's trying to take care of another creature. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Another thing to kind of mention here too, is
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  Speaker 2: that you don't want to attempt to punish the me outing.
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  Speaker 2: First it won't work right, like, it's very unlikely to work,
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  Speaker 2: and second, it's all gonna make your cat afraid of you.
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  Speaker 2: So just try to figure out what the cat needs
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  Speaker 2: and provide it if it's reasonable to do so. I
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  Speaker 2: think that's the best way to go about coping and
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  Speaker 2: dealing with mowing.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes they're going to meow for something that they
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  Speaker 1: can't have. They're like, hey, I want to go run
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  Speaker 1: out in front of that truck and you're like, nope,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not going to let you do that. And sometimes
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  Speaker 1: they're like that fish that you're eating looks pretty good.
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  Speaker 1: You should give it to me, and you're like, nope,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not going to do that. And those of those
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  Speaker 1: situations happen, but I mean, for the most part, like,
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  Speaker 1: if they need something and they're meowing, like the best
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  Speaker 1: thing you can do is try and provide that thing,
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  Speaker 1: if again, if it's reasonable to do so so, and
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  Speaker 1: if you're trying to take care of that animal. There
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  Speaker 1: are going to be people who hear this and they're like, ooh,
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  Speaker 1: a new way to torture cats, and please don't do that, jerk,
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  Speaker 1: But I think that's what I have to say about
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  Speaker 1: the cats meow.
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  Speaker 2: I got nothing else on the cat's mew so perfect.
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  Speaker 2: I'm surprised that we got through this whole episode without
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  Speaker 2: doing a super Trooper's reference.
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  Speaker 1: Right yeah, well, you know we were able to stay
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  Speaker 1: on topic right now. There it is is okay, Thank
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: you all for listening. I also forgot to say this
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: in the last episode or two, I realized that I
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: have not mentioned that. If you'd like to tell us
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: your thoughts about Kat's meowing or whatever the previous topic was,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: you should email us. You can reach us directly by
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: emailing info at wwdwwdpodcast dot com. You can also reach
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  Speaker 1: us on the social media platforms. Thank you to my
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: team and people for helping me make this show running
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: in fact checking from Shane and myself. Thank you for
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: recording with me today.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Shane, hey any time, Thanks for having me.
• 11:27
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  Speaker 1: I don't say very often either I guess, but yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I think. Anything else that I'm missing or anything you
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: like to add before we say goodbyes, No, I think
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  Speaker 1: that covers it all right, Very good. Thank you all
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: for listening. This is Abraham and this is Shane. Why
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: We Do What We Do Mini is out by me Al.
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  Speaker 1: You've been listening to Why We Do What We Do.
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  Speaker 2: You can learn more about this and other episodes by
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