Cats and beards just don't mix...

[TheRustyOne]

:rofl:

http://www.improb.com/airchives/classical/cat/cat.html

 

[TigerWoman]

I could understand most of it, but the part about the assistant being ANESTHETIZED while handling the cats???

 

[theletch1]

My take on the experiment is this...some folks have WAAAAY too much time on their hands and not enough on their minds. :uhyeah:

 

[TheRustyOne]

I could understand most of it, but the part about the assistant being ANESTHETIZED while handling the cats???

Maybe so the assistant couldn't feel the cats' claws when they freaked?? :idunno: That is odd...

 

[Ceicei]

I could understand most of it, but the part about the assistant being ANESTHETIZED while handling the cats???

The article explained why:

"While each cat was viewing the photographs, it was held by a laboratory assistant. To ensure that the cats were not influenced by stroking or other unconscious cues from the assistant, the assistant was anesthetized prior to each session."

This anesthesia is intended to relax the assistant so that cats would more or less be treated all the same. It's kind of like when some people will unconsciously chew on pencils, twirl a strand of their hair, grind their teeth, bite nails, or whatever. If you have a small pet, let a friend hold the pet and engage your friend in a serious conversation so that the friend isn't paying attention to the animal. Almost always, there will be some sort of unconsicous behavior the person will do with the pet (such as petting firmly, or rubbing fur between two fingers, etc.) They don't want that behavior to effect the cats while they are viewing the pictures.

- Ceicei