Scientific Research: How do Cats react to Bearded Men?

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Errr. So I know it’s the week of the world’s major gadget fair, CES 2011… but, we just thought we should take some time out to tell you about important scientific research done on cats.

The blog Improbable Research (an off-shoot of the Annals of Improbable Research and done by the same people behind the Ig-Nobel prize) reports that research was carried on how cats reacted to men with beards.

Here’s the premise and the methodology:
“Cats were exposed to photographs of bearded men. The beards were of various sizes, shapes, and styles. The cats’ responses were recorded and analyzed […] 214 cats participated in the study. Three cats died during the study, due to causes unrelated to the bearded men. Fifteen cats gave birth while viewing the photographs.”

The conclusion is even better:
1. Cats do not like men with long beards, especially long dark beards.
2. Cats are indifferent to men with shorter beards.
3. Cats are confused and/or disturbed by men with beards that are incomplete (e.g., Bork) and to a lesser degree by men whose beards have missing parts (e.g., Crafts).

This sets my spoof bells a-ringing, but it’s a cracking read, and until I hear some cold hard scientific evidence to the contrary about the behaviour of cats around beards, I’m going to believe it.

Read the rest on Improbable Research.

[via neatorama]
Anna Leach

One thought on “Scientific Research: How do Cats react to Bearded Men?”

  • ‘Three cats died during the study, due to causes unrelated to the bearded men.’

    I don’t know why, but this sentence just won’t stop cracking me up, more so than even the rest of the story. Possibly because it’s so vague about how they actually did die, possibly because of the immediate reassurance that bearded do not inexplicably cause cat deaths.

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