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Cat People vs. Dog People

research.facebook.com

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Re: Cat People vs. Dog People

#31

Post by bluejekyll »

auganov wrote: post #19
cryptica wrote: post #10

I used to love dogs when I was a kid, now I'm definitely a cat person. I find dogs superficial and too simple-minded. If you feed them often enough, they will like you (guaranteed) - I find this kind of relationship unsatisfying - You are the master and so the dog has no choice but to like you. Kind of like how people are inclined to laugh when their boss makes a not-so-funny joke - That's the kind of dynamic you get…

Most [all?] cultures agree. "Dog" is an insult across many languages, which indicates it's lower status. Never heard of "cat" being a standalone insult.

"You're a pussycat", is a classic saying that you extremely gentle and nothing to worry about (not necessarily bad I know).

"You're a dog", is generally a comment about someone doing anything to get what they want, for entrepreneurs this is probably a good thing. I've often heard this used in a respectful way in meaning that even though you bent the rules, you came out on the winning end.

Re: Cat People vs. Dog People

#33

Post by NeutronBoy »

honkhonkpants wrote: post #16

This seems like quite an intrusion into people's private data. If certain other large companies decided to crawl all over your data for shits and giggles, I'm fairly sure HN would have its pitchforks out.

You'll probably find that they didn't use any data that's not available to 'public' viewing.

(Would be interesting to hear about their sampling methodology)

Re: Cat People vs. Dog People

#34

Post by bluejekyll »

auganov wrote: post #27
chris_st wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In american english, calling someone "catty" means they gossip maliciously. Also, "cathouse" is another name for whorehouse.

Yea, but that's a variation on cat. Not a standalone "cat', while a standalone "dog" has enough of a negative connotation in most languages.

Seriously? you won't accept derivatives that disagree with your statement.

Also, see the response about the spanish usage of 'gata'

edit: this is much too serious of a response to this funny of a thread, I should throw some humor in here somewhere ;)

Re: Cat People vs. Dog People

#35

Post by RickS »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #17

This is a really nice blog post; I hope we keep seeing more posts like this coming from Facebook. I wonder why we haven't seen something similar from Google. Surely they have access to as much or more data? Perhaps Google does publish similar blog posts, and I'm just not aware of where to look for them? In any case, the results presented definitely didn't match my expectations. Although upon giving it a bit of though…

>I wonder why we haven't seen something similar from Google

I imagine google spends a great deal of effort to avoid the "we know everything about you" stereotype

Re: Cat People vs. Dog People

#36

Post by bluejekyll »

narrator wrote: post #32

Here's some fun dinner party conversation you can source from this article: dog people like "Fifty Shades of Grey", cat people like "A Clockwork Orange". Discuss.

Actually, I was surprised at the number of dark movies vs. fun movies that cat people vs. dog people liked.

Based on that, I should be a cat person, but I enjoy dogs much more.

Re: Cat People vs. Dog People

#37

Post by whateveracct »

honkhonkpants wrote: post #16

This seems like quite an intrusion into people's private data. If certain other large companies decided to crawl all over your data for shits and giggles, I'm fairly sure HN would have its pitchforks out.

> To answer these questions, we dug our claws into aggregate, de-identified data from a sample of about 160,000 people in the United States who shared photos of cats or dogs (or both) on Facebook.

How is looking at aggregate, de-identified data an intrusion into people's private data? ?? ?

Re: Cat People vs. Dog People

#38

Post by douche »

TA8aug wrote: post #22
overcast wrote: post #3

The book and movie comparisons throw me off. It looks like the majority of dog owners in this research are women, while the majority of cat owners are men. I'd have expected those to be reversed.

My gut reaction to the book and movie comparisons is that people who share cat photos tend to be liberal and people who share dog photos tend to be conservative (for the US definition of liberal and conservative). Maybe I'm off base. Also, note that the comparison is about people who share cat or dog photos and their Facebook friends -- not about cat or dog people and their actual friends. I'm a dog person and many o…

It's also difficult to have a real dog if you're living in a city. Dogs need space, exercise, and attention, which are in short supply the more urban you go. Additionally, it can be almost impossible to find apartments that will allow dogs over purse-size.

Cats don't particularly need exercise, are small, tend to be able to entertain themselves, and for whatever reason, are easier to get permission to have in apartments[1]. So if you're a city person, it's magnitudes easier to be a cat person, if you're going to have pets at all. City people are more liberal than country people, on average.

[1] I cannot stand litterboxes, hairballs, or cat urine, so this baffles me...

Re: Cat People vs. Dog People

#39

Post by auganov »

bluejekyll wrote: post #34
auganov wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, but that's a variation on cat. Not a standalone "cat', while a standalone "dog" has enough of a negative connotation in most languages.

Seriously? you won't accept derivatives that disagree with your statement. Also, see the response about the spanish usage of 'gata' edit: this is much too serious of a response to this funny of a thread, I should throw some humor in here somewhere ;)

Of course not (which I indicated fairly clearly too). To make a fair comparison you want to consider what kind of a feeling or connotation "You're a dog" vs "You're a cat" invokes. Variations on the sentence are okay too, like, say "You're such a dog" or "Come here dog". I didn't contest 'gata', gender specificity does make it non-ideal, but I'll take it.

Re: Cat People vs. Dog People

#40

Post by alonmower »

It's funny, I grew up with both cats and dogs and like them both (and one observation I've had is that most people I know tend to like whichever pets they had when they were younger, fear of the unknown and all that).

In my circle of friends in SF/Oakland cats are definitely more prevalent but I think a lot of that has to do with how expensive owning a dog here is. My roommate has two cats but I'd probably get a dog if it wouldn't cost me so much. You need:

1) An apartment/house that allows dogs. This means you either own your own property, pay out the nose for a newer development that allows pets, or if you're in the lucky few you may have a rent controlled place lets you have them

2) Something for them to do during the day. This means you either work at a place that lets you have pets, have enough money to pay a dogwalker, or have enough private indoor/outdoor space where you can leave them dog during the day (see #1)

3) Places to put them while you travel, but most of your friends can't have dogs at their places so this usually means paying a dogsitter

I imagine it's similar in places like NYC but it's weird for me to think of owning a dog as a status symbol

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