(July 27, 2015 at 9:39 pm)Alex K Wrote: Can you quickly summarize for me what personality type I am if I never feel an inclination to view internet cats? Am I evil or something?
From the research:
Quote:These analyses demonstrated that higher frequency of viewing Internet cats was positively and significantly associated with cat affinity, cat ownership (current and past), pet assistance behaviors, agreeableness, shyness, and affective support. Frequency of viewing was negatively and significantly associated with emotional stability, with negative values of emotional stability similar to higher trait anxiety/neuroticism (Gosling et al., 2003). There was no significant association with extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experiences, or wellbeing.
So maybe you are an emotionally stable person who does not have a cat affinity.
Also, though, one cannot really come to any firm conclusions from this one paper:
Quote:Like all social science endeavors, the present study comes with a number of limitations. The survey did not use a random, representative sample of Internet users, and therefore the results are not necessarily generalizable to all Internet users or all fans of online cat-related media. In particular, most respondents in this sample were female and more work is needed to see if and why there might be gender differences in attraction to Internet cats. Additionally, the measures of emotional states used in this study were retrospective self-reports and are susceptible to forgetfulness and/or exaggeration. Experiments are needed to advance this line of work and demonstrate causality. Furthermore, the cross-sectional nature of this survey makes it impossible to definitively establish a causal link between consumption of Internet cat media and emotional states. Experimental work is needed to confirm mood management motivations for looking at online cat content as well as to test the effects of online cat media on Internet users’ emotional states.
However, this initial study provides the groundwork for scholars interested in this Internet phenomenon. Future studies could also use sentiment analysis of comments posted on online cat-related media or psychophysiological measures taken during real-time viewing to see if these techniques provide similar results. In-depth interviews may provide rich context and nuanced insights as to why and to what effect Internet users view cat videos and photos.
So, no, there is no conclusion that you are evil. If it makes you feel better, I don't watch many cat videos online either. I just stumbled upon this paper and thought it was interesting.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
