this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2025
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To Get a Man’s Attention, Meow Harder | In a small study, pet cats greeted male owners with more vocalizations than they did female caregivers. (www.nytimes.com)
submitted 12 hours ago by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/nyt_gift_articles@sopuli.xyz
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[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 hours ago

I talk to our cat way more than my wife does...and our cat talks way more to me, in return. I'm also the one that gives her more attention in general, including feeding and petting. She sleeps with me more. Follows me into the bathroom more. My wife says she's "my cat", not "hers".

But, it is true that when she seeks attention from my wife, she doesn't ask for it the same way...she just sits there and stares at her. With me, it's all purring and meowing and headbutts. With my wife...just eye contact.

So, this is an interesting study, although I'm not sure about the conclusion.

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Male owners. Female caregivers.

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 hours ago

Men cannot give care of course, they're incapable of feelings don't ya know.

[–] Madrigal@lemmy.world 9 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

I love how they’ve interpreted “different communication style” to mean “less attentive / worse at caregiving”.

Misandric crap.

[–] pdxfed@lemmy.world 7 points 8 hours ago

"women ignore their cats so much cats don't even bother trying very much with vocalizations" could have been an equally crap "interpretation. It's one study with a hypothesis that hasn't been duplicated, ever, let alone tested to control variables to prove the hypothesis. Nice clickbait article and that's all that matters to the NYT in 2025 apparently.

I remember when science articles were actual scientifically validated and reasonably proven before someone would think to publish something. One study? Deserving an article?

[–] bonenode@piefed.social 2 points 8 hours ago

Agreed, I think it is interesting that there is a difference, but that is quite a toxic conclusion.

Did they run their statistics over the height of the caregiver? Could simply just be that all men were taller and the cats just think they need to yell lowder because of that. Not unlikely since most couples come together with the man being taller. Maybe the men all weighed more then the women. Maybe the men were less at home than the women. There's tons of stuff that could influence this.