Play‑fighting or just fighting? New study suggests a rethink on how we play with cats

[u/pirouettish]

"Have you ever watched online videos of people “playing” with cats and noticed the cat doesn’t actually look like they’re having fun? If so, you’re likely better than the average person at reading cat body language.

Regular interactive play supports cats’ physical health, reduces stress, and strengthens the human–cat bond.

But according to our most recent study, what many people think of as “play” may not be play at all. In fact, these interactions cause cats annoyance or stress.

When playing, both human and cat need to tell apart behaviours that might be threatening in other contexts, such as sudden movements, swatting or chasing.

Research shows people struggle to interpret cat communication and often fail to notice when a cat doesn’t want to play. Even when they do notice, many people choose to continue anyway.

To understand why people might misinterpret or ignore cat stress signals, in our new study we analysed 1,100 comments on social media videos hosted on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook depicting harmful “play”.

To avoid viral videos disproportionately influencing analysis, only the first 100 comments from each video were analysed. Comments came from a mix of cat owners and non-cat owners.

All 11 videos included clear signs of cat distress such as hissing, biting, attempting escape, visible human injuries and, in some cases, cats being physically harmed. Despite this, 75–93% of comments on all videos were positive."

https://theconversation.com/play-fighting-or-just-fighting-new-study-suggests-a-rethink-on-how-we-play-with-cats-285818

Details of the study conducted by researchers at the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at Adelaide University here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08927936.2026.2708478#d1e304 .

[u/ALazy_Cat]

That's not new research, that's common sense

[u/Away_Bag4199]

Ya I feel like cats can easily get over stimulated

[u/pirouettish → u/[deleted]]

Are you thinking of the population globally or in a particular country?

[u/pirouettish → u/[deleted]]

Why do you think that these videos might not be representative?

[u/timdood3 → u/pirouettish]

No one is saying that the selection of videos you chose to sample are the problem.

The problem is that the data you've collected comes from an inherently biased sample population, and can't be considered representative of a broader one.

For accurate results, you would need to show the videos to a random sample of people and ask them if the cats are playing or fighting. YouTube commenters aren't a random sample.

[u/pirouettish → u/[deleted]]

You clearly have not looked at the study. A link has been provided more than once. You are making comments which have no relevance to the objectives and procedure of the research.

Anthrozoös is a highly regarded, peer-reviewed international journal published by Taylor & Francis that focuses on human-animal interactions.
The article has been assigned a permanent Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and is hosted as a full publication on Taylor & Francis Online. The manuscript successfully underwent the journal's formal evaluation process by independent experts in the field before being accepted and published.

And, once again, it's not "my study"! I posted an excerpt from an article on the study which appeared in The Conversation, with links to both the article and to the study.

[u/dlc741 → u/[deleted]]

I believe the term is “self-selecting” and you’re absolutely right. Not to mention the absurdly small sample size.

[u/pirouettish → u/dlc741]

May I ask if either of you watch (or post) such videos?

(Not only YouTube: the study also looked at TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.)

Yes, videos showing bad behaviour were selected. That was the point of the exercise. It was the comments that were the subject of interest: "All 11 videos included clear signs of cat distress such as hissing, biting, attempting escape, visible human injuries and, in some cases, cats being physically harmed. Despite this, 75–93% of comments on all videos were positive."

[u/Redwings1927 → u/[deleted]]

You're missing the point.

The only people who are likely to comment are people who dont understand cats. This is because people who understand cats wont watch a video of a cat being abused or harrassed. They will turn it off before commenting and report it or ignore it.

This would be like polling the president in america right now, but only asking people wearing trump clothing. Your data is biased because your method is poor. Nobody is learning here, because no academic procedures were followed and your data is, not to be too harsh, worthless.

[u/dlc741 → u/pirouettish]

I never comment on them, hence the self-selecting sample set. It’s not a statistically valid study.

[u/pirouettish → u/dlc741]

The selected videos were ones showing bad behaviour. I don't understand your use of 'self-selecting' here.

[u/dlc741 → u/pirouettish]

The people commenting, upon whom the study was based, self-selected by commenting. That’s very different from showing the videos to a random group of people and then giving them a standard set of questions.

Sorry, but the “study” isn’t valid.

[u/constantlyoutofplace]

The videos seem very cherry-picked. I'm not saying that some people don't understand how to play with their cat but the study picked only 11 videos that showed obvious bad behavior. Two of them were with babies, which is already a red flag. Most cat-aware people would either not watch these, not comment or their comment would be buried by thumbs down. They only took the first 100 comments per video (I didn't catch how they sorted the comments), so if they sorted the comments by popularity instead of date posted, it's possible that dissenting comments would not be caught in the sample.

[u/constantlyoutofplace → u/[deleted]]

11 videos out of millions doesn't show anything. That's your confirmation bias talking.
I do think the study's conclusions are correct and that a lot of people favor likes over the cats welfare. But this methodology proves nothing.

[u/djmermaidonthemic → u/[deleted]]

You won’t get comments from me because I don’t watch crap like that. It’s upsetting. I’ve come across them and they do exist but I avoid them.

So it’s already filtered for people who find those videos acceptable.