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Full Article: https://www.insidehook.com/daily_brief/sex-and-dating/women-dont-date-men-with-cats

I don't know how great this topic is, lol, but it showed up in one of my newsletters this morning and I thought it was interesting because it references gender bias. Basically, a study by Colorado State University suggests that women are less likely "swipe right" on guys that include their cat in the photo. They postulate that this is because men who own cats are perceived by heterosexual American women (the article specifically references American culture) as being less masculine, and thus less attractive (the gender bias).

Sorry, cat guys? For what it's worth, I would never find you less attractive for owning a cat (though I was allergic to cat hair as a child).

Girls who don't to date guys who have cats don't deserve us! Besides, unless you live in the countryside where your dogs can roam free, cats are just better indoor animals.

I'd hang out with any guy who has a cat. Cats are amazing.

...but the other part of the equation is actually dating said guy, which is kind of a deal breaker. Ah, being gay.

I honestly don't know how serious I take this, I posted it more because I was a little surprised at how such a minor thing might have such a measurable impact because of an ingrained bias that most of those women probably don't even realize they have.

Girls who don't to date guys who have cats don't deserve us! Besides, unless you live in the countryside where your dogs can roam free, cats are just better indoor animals.

Maybe you're proof that they're just wrong.

I don't think it's because cats make men look less masculine I think it's just because cats are horrible creatures. They're brood parasites with 0 care for humanity other than as a host so most people wouldn't wanna have to deal with one should they become a couple and move in together in the future.

Finally, though we chose the study design to control for confounding variables, its simplicity may have made our research objective too obvious to respondents. We attempted to mitigate this possibility by randomizing which photo respondents saw first (alone or with cat). Regardless, given the educational status of our sample, we cannot rule out the potential that some of the respondents were biased by guesses as to the purpose of the study.

Heh. I'm glad the study noticed this flaw in the experiment. Which the above post nicely demonstrates!

I don't think it's because cats make men look less masculine I think it's just because cats are horrible creatures. They're brood parasites with 0 care for humanity other than as a host so most people wouldn't wanna have to deal with one should they become a couple and move in together in the future.

I'm very tempted to mock you for "edginess," mate. I mean... dude, cats are cats. You're not going to get brownie points for hating cats. XD

In any case, I'd sure be interested in the followup study proposed, where they suggest adding a photo of a dog.