Claim: Cats take after their owners

Question

The study claims that cats take after their owners main characters after a long period of time.

Answer 1

There's uncertainty within the credibility of this researchers argument. Their study includes surveys asking current cat owners to question the personality of their cats to prove that the owners strongest traits will transfer to their pets. The research would be more credible if they had studied the behaviors of the cats and the owners over time, and checked for progress along the way. The personality's of cats all vary and change as the cat grows. Saying their personality relies solely within the owner after a single survey does not give enough data to make the statement true.

Comments

I agree with this statement, proving alignment between a cat and an owners personality trait seems to be missing some key controls, such as change in personality over time and the idea that owners are conducting the big five test on their cats, who cannot actually answer the questions. It's also possible that the owners notice traits that align with their own more due to projection of your own emotions and traits on to the animal.

Answer 2

Although the study claims that cats take after their owners after a long period of time. This can be misleading since they conducted their study based on surveys and did not study the behaviors of cats and owners.

Answer 3

This article cites several sources from which the authors acquired their findings. Though the writer of this article has no credibility in the study or anything related to it, the sources she uses do have people who have studied this through surveying owners. Unfortunately, this article is more than 5 years old so it could be rather outdated regarding research. I tried to find more articles about this research but most of them are from the same time as the article in question. A big media outlet like, "People," covered this story around the same time this was published so it could be true. However, I would like to say that having the cat's owner survey their cat could create some bias rather than if someone on the outside were to evaluate them.

Answer 4

The article posits that over time, cats begin to mirror the personalities of their owners. It references several sources that underpin this claim, although the author lacks expertise in this area. The cited sources do include researchers who have conducted surveys of cat owners, adding some weight to the argument. However, the article is over five years old, which raises concerns about the relevance of its findings today. In my search for more recent studies, I found that most were similarly dated. Nonetheless, I feel that relying solely on owner surveys could lead to bias, as an independent assessment might yield different insights.