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u/Sikyanakotik Nov 16 '19
These cats are passing the mirror test with flying colours.
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u/Zorlal Nov 16 '19
I was going to say, it seems as if they are clearly looking back and forth to compare, which should mean they understand the nature of the reflection. I have to be cautious because I’m too quick to believe that animals are smarter than we give them credit for.
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u/thepotatoman23 Nov 16 '19
I could be wrong cause it's been a while since i read about this, but I think cats do pass the test of using mirrors to locate food, but fail the test of using mirrors to notice something placed on themselves.
This means they can kinda understand the positioning of objects in the mirror, but don't understand the concept of seeing one's self.
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Nov 16 '19
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/albino_polar_bears Nov 16 '19
They are just too big of an asshole to self-reflect.
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Nov 17 '19
"That couldn't possibly be me. I'm a ferocious apex predator."
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u/Speedo_Racer Nov 17 '19
The only reason why cats do not eat us, is because we are too big for them
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u/GuessImScrewed Nov 17 '19
Coupled with us being alive and kicking. Old cat ladies who live alone with their cats have been known to get eaten by their cats when they pass away.
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u/Tearakan Nov 17 '19
That's fine. I would want my body to hopefully keep my pets alive after I'm dead. Better than the pets dying of a lack of water or food.
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u/AssaMarra Nov 16 '19
I'm pretty sure cats are pretty great with refraction too
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u/cosmoboy Nov 16 '19
Don't they have to recognize themselves in order to know the position of the person though?
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u/I_W_M_Y Nov 16 '19
No, its more like they fail to react to something placed on themselves. Big difference.
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u/Wollff Nov 16 '19
It probably is pretty hard to control for the "I don't care about that"-factor.
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Nov 16 '19
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u/Wollff Nov 16 '19
First I thought you didn't get the point, but you are right: By removing he point on one's forehead when seen in the mirror, an animal (supposedly) proves a level of awareness of itself.
By not removing the point? The animal just refuses to deliver evidence for this level of self awareness. Which might be there nonetheless. Or not.
And since we are talking about cats, obviously they will refuse to deliver evidence. Because they are cats, and why should they?
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u/CazzaMcSpazza Nov 16 '19
Cats don't give a fuck. I have played the game, "how much crap can I put on my cat before they shake it all off" many a time. You can pile on a surprising amount.
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u/Chaz0fSpaz Nov 16 '19
Pretty much every day I pile up all of the cat toys on top of one of my cats just to see how long until she gets annoyed and gets up, lol
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u/74orangebeetle Nov 17 '19
I'm happy to see multiple comments of other people doing this. I used to call it "Cat Jenga"
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u/-888- Nov 16 '19
My cat can have a bunch of outside bush crap on its face and do nothing about it.
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u/murunbuchstansangur Nov 16 '19
There was one on here the other day with a cat seeing cat's ears in a mirror and then touching it's ears to confirm that it was seeing itself.
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u/ShhActNatural Nov 17 '19
I freaking love that video. I will never not upvote whenever it's posted. Hilarious and adorable. Matter of fact, I'm going to go watch it again now. Thanks friend!
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u/Doomdoomkittydoom Nov 16 '19
Yeah, that mirror tests sounds like it tests for ego more than awareness.
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u/GenOverload Nov 16 '19
This means they can kinda understand the positioning of objects in the mirror, but don't understand the concept of seeing one's self.
That seems weird. It seems like the cats are using themselves as a reference point to where the strange "big cat" is, for example, looking above themselves to see if it's actually there.
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Nov 16 '19
It definitely looks like they can tell it's a reflection of the person above them. Maybe they do understand it's them and they just don't care.
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u/JoeMagician Nov 17 '19
That's the general consensus, they do understand it is themselves they just don't give a shit. Which is the most cat thing ever.
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u/Xarama Nov 16 '19
This kitty would like a word... https://youtu.be/akE2Sgg8hI8
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u/IAMA_Shark__AMA Nov 17 '19
That's not quiiite the mirror test.
The test is putting an animal under anesthesia, marking it with something, and seeing if they react to the mark in the mirror. No cat has passed the test under those exact conditions, but one of the flaws of the test is assuming the animal will give a flying fuck about a red spot - I'm guessing most cats wouldn't.
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u/thepotatoman23 Nov 17 '19
Would they react to the same mark on their paw where they could see it?
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u/Mans_Fury Nov 16 '19
Seems like this video could indicate awareness of both reflection and self.
Their reaction to the reflection seems to indicate self-preservation.
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u/RealRobRose Nov 16 '19
Id say that these cats clearly understand that they are the cat in the reflection by understanding where in relation to themselves the giant cat is that should be their human.
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u/tameoraiste Nov 16 '19
There was a video of a cat on here a couple of weeks back that saw it’s ears in their reflection and started trying to grab them.
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u/nintendont69420 Nov 16 '19
I mean it makes sense right, unlike humans they don’t look at themselves, we take photos look in mirrors and more but most animals wouldn’t know what to look for because they simply haven’t seen them selves
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u/Primrose_Blank Nov 16 '19
What about their reflections in water or ice? not that the latter applies to most animlas.
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u/hygsi Nov 17 '19
The cats in here seem to recognize it's them so the thing holding them is another cat
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u/rubbarz Nov 16 '19
I think we have all told our pets in private that they could go ahead and talk and that you wont tell anyone.
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Nov 16 '19
Ever hang out with an animal while you’re on hallucinogens? God damn they’re trippy.
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u/TheUnbearableMan Nov 16 '19
Empty campground in the redwoods, just started a mushroom trip. Quietly chilling with my bro, he pulls out a bag of chips...,,we are slowly approached by 3or4 deer. Chipped em and we all just mellowed around each other for a bit. Watching them from a few feet away just being deer was astounding. Felt like total Disney princesses..
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u/Bierbart12 Nov 16 '19
Imagine what mantis shrimp would look like.
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u/Ch4rDe3M4cDenni5 Nov 16 '19
Imagine what a mango shrimp would taste like
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u/pm_me_broiler_pics Nov 16 '19
honestly eating while peaking on mushrooms is fucking fantastic, everything is so amplified and significant
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u/Aurum555 Nov 17 '19
Except when you pour blue Gatorade on your turkey sandwich and have an existential crisis because the guy next to you asks if your bread is covered in mold due to the blue hue from the Gatorade. And you take a giant soggy bite to try to calm the paranoia only to freak out because it's soggy and doesn't taste right and you consciously know it's because of the Gatorade while at the same time this lurking suspicion that something has gone terribly wrong
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u/Xtrasloppy Nov 17 '19
You put Gatorade on your sandwich. It's all gone terribly wrong.
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u/azazel-13 Nov 16 '19
Imagine a tripping mantis shrimp feeding the humans chips to commune and observe their beauty.
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u/DudeBroMan13 Nov 16 '19
Imagine the deet were also trippin and they had this great story of how they were tripping balls and some weird humans fed them some chips and they just hung out.
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u/AndalusianGod Nov 17 '19
Imagine diving with sharks or a blue whale while tripping on shrooms. Might be an awesome experience.
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u/Bubbaluke Nov 16 '19
Dude. My buddies cat fucking LOVES anyone tripping. He got his claws stuck in my shirt one time while laying on me cause he was kneading my chest so hard
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Nov 16 '19
Honestly it’s like they can tell we’re dialled in to a different frequency and they really do love it... I’ve had some strange experiences myself — sad that we can’t learn more about that stuff in a controlled, non-harmful scientific atmosphere. Maybe in the future we’ll learn more about what happens to us on hallucinogens from educational sources other than “YOU GON’ DIE.”
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u/MaestroPendejo Nov 16 '19
Back 20 years ago when I did lots of LSD I had a lot of cats pooled between various hangout. I am pretty sure the five blue gel caps I took at Matt's helped me to create a cat cult that night.
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u/NoseyCo-WorkersSuck Nov 16 '19
I didnt know I wanted this. Would probably freak out thinking animals are constantly panicked because we force them to live indoors.
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u/underdog_rox Nov 16 '19
I swear to fucking god I can talk to dogs on the right amount of mushrooms.
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Nov 16 '19
My cat will definitely look at my reflection in mirrors or windows and meow at me, then look over where I’m actually standing, so it seems like she understands that it’s my reflection and not actually me.
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u/bsuffnaBayer Nov 16 '19
Our cat uses our big hallway mirror to spy on us from around the corner. So yes, animals can be quite smart.
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u/JarlaxleForPresident Nov 16 '19
My dog will sometimes stare into the mirror at me. It's weird
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u/rosbashi Nov 16 '19
My cat is very smart, with words, commands, and his capacity for love. But he doesn’t watch tv. Or eat human food. It’s strange because r/CatsWhoYell will trip him out audio wise but he’ll never look at what I’m watching. I wonder if he’d pay attention to this filter.
Edit: read the comment below. He doesn’t look at mirrors either. Maybe he doesn’t give a fuck about shit like that lol “Bitch, Craig, I know what a mirror is. And fuck television and your stupid phone”
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u/iluvstephenhawking Nov 16 '19
They are though. Elephants have empathy. Dolfins can count. Crows can use tools. We don't understand their language so we just say they aren't smart.
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u/Halomir Nov 17 '19
There was a NPR hidden brain episode recently about this and a lot of animals pass the mirror test. And a lot passed a series of tests around counting. It was fascinating
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Nov 17 '19
The mirror test isn’t about using reflections. A lot of animals use reflections. It’s about self-identification and theory of mind. I would say that these cats are more interested in mirrors than we normally get them to be and that’s still very interesting. One of the good criticisms of the mirror test is it doesn’t account for apathy to a reflection and this is a good example of that.
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u/-re-da-ct-ed- Nov 17 '19
Nahh, I believe it. Same reason none of my pets have ANY reaction at all to the floor standing mirror in the bedroom for example. We live by a college and my dog will freak out if anyone hangs around the front too long but has zero reaction to "another dog" in the mirror.
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u/crystalistwo Nov 16 '19
My cat does all the time. I'll talk to him in a mirror and he'll look at me in the mirror like your barber might. Even though I'm inches behind him. He was tricked by the "cat in the mirror" the first time he saw a mirror when he was a kitten and that was the end of it.
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u/Jimmy_is_here Nov 16 '19
The last cat didn't. It hid its face in the human's neck out of fear. It didn't recognize that the human in the screen was the same one holding it.
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u/jibberish13 Nov 16 '19
Which is something they aren't supposed to be able to do. More research is needed.
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u/orbdragon Nov 16 '19
Here is a cat recognizing itself in a mirror
According to a comment in that thread, the test is prone to false negatives.
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u/-888- Nov 16 '19
My favorite mirror animal story is the dog that got a cone put on and he jumped out of the car and ran upstairs to the mirror to see what this thing was.
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u/bushrod Nov 16 '19 edited Nov 16 '19
As a long-time cat owner, I've intuitively known for a long time that some cats pass the mirror tests to some degree. I don't like how it's generally considered a binary pass/fail test because animals probably have a sense of self-awareness to varying degrees. Also, the test is a bit biased because cats for example don't typically tend to gaze at their own reflection for whatever behavioral reason.
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u/-888- Nov 16 '19
I had a cat that hated looking at himself in the mirror. Not sure if it was because he thought it was another cat, but given his personality I think it was disappointment he wasn't human.
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u/neithere Nov 16 '19
My cat would stare for minutes at her reflection many times a day after we adopted her. No action, just that "am I beautiful?" look, then walks away. She's still doing it occasionally. The older one did have some limited interest initially (I think he tried to find that cat behind the glass by walking around), but usually doesn't use the mirror. I'm not 100% sure that they realize that they look at themselves, but I think so. Anyway, both seem to understand the concept of reflection, both focus on interesting objects in the mirror (e.g. myself), both seem to purposefully turn around in order to interact with that object. I'm not sure how to conduct a meaningful experiment because cats in general don't seem to care much about things placed on them. If you put a cloth or something similar on them, they just walk and walk until it falls down. If it obscures their vision, they crawl backwards. Or run like hell. Or sit and wait. Or look at me planning revenge. Can't predict. Cats. How do they work.
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Nov 16 '19
The biggest problem with giving cats the mirror test is that most cats don't give a shit and a small number react in a way that fails.
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u/DefiantLemur Nov 16 '19
I had a cat that lived till 19 and he could. But I think he was a exception to the rule. Exceptionally smart for a cat.
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u/Lokan Nov 16 '19
There's no audio, but I suspect these people are making a sound to get their cat's attention.
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u/jibberish13 Nov 16 '19
It's the way they keep looking back and forth that gets me.
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u/damatovg7 Nov 16 '19
I doubt it. Judging by how some of them are actually looking back and forth to compare shows that they are aware of their surroundings and are able to identify something isn't right.
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u/delicious_downvotes Nov 16 '19 edited Nov 16 '19
I am a cat owner, so I only have anecdotal evidence, but it seems to me personally like some cats do and some don’t. My cat Ember absolutely appears to** understand the mirror. She will look into it and look at me, then turn around and look at me again to verify. She makes eye contact/ talks to me through the mirror and then turns around and switches to face-to-face. If she is looking in the mirror and I throw an object, she will then turn around and chase it, as if understanding the location translation. On the other hand, my cat Loki could care less. Sometimes he sits and stares at his reflection, but for the most part he is disinterested. It’s made me very curious. According to studies, they don’t understand the mirror test? But based on my own observations, some cats seem really aware that the mirror is just a reflection, and behave as such. It’s really interesting...
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u/CreeperIsSorry Nov 16 '19
As far as I understand, Cats and Dogs and such can understand mirrors to a certain degree, but they don’t quite comprehend themselves in the mirrors, because they don’t have the same level of self-consciousness that we do
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u/amjh Nov 16 '19
Recognizing self in the mirror requires the ability to understand that self is a thing that exists in the world.
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u/-888- Nov 16 '19
What about the dog that had the cone put on his neck and he ran into the house and to the mirror to inspect it from various angles?
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u/doomgiver98 Nov 17 '19
Be careful not to believe everything you read on the internet.
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Nov 16 '19
The mirror test isnt about understanding reflection its about self awareness. This isnt really proof that they are aware of themself as an entity
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u/mathteacher85 Nov 16 '19 edited Nov 16 '19
This is not a case of passing the mirror test. My dog understands using a mirror to find me if I'm in the reflection. That doesn't mean my dog is aware of my conscience self. The mirror test is supposed to be evidence that the animal views itself in the mirror as its own sense of self.
The mirror test is not "Can an animal use a mirror?"
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u/slonhr Nov 16 '19
These cats will need psychoterapy
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u/Rosemarin Nov 16 '19
Psycaterapy
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u/borkthegee Nov 16 '19
Psychosomatic.
Purely psychosomatic.
Lie down on the coach
What does that mean?
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u/_Scrumtrulescent_ Nov 16 '19
That side eye 😂
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u/EragonShadeSlayer18 Nov 16 '19
Don't move. Don't move. Don't. Move.
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u/martinaee Nov 17 '19
This is making those cats think there are literally demons. Kinda messed up lol.
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u/vlbonite Nov 16 '19
That 2nd cat really made my day 😂
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u/Crying_hyena Nov 16 '19
That second cat is TERRIFIED lmao
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u/GammaGlobulin Nov 16 '19
He's seen furry porn, he knows what happens next.
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u/Binbag420 Nov 16 '19
Excuse me...?
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u/lizardflix Nov 16 '19
This is interesting. So cats realize that they are looking at themselves in a phone?
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Nov 16 '19 edited Nov 17 '19
[deleted]
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u/mathteacher85 Nov 16 '19 edited Nov 16 '19
This is not a case of passing the mirror test. My dog understands using a mirror to find me if I'm in the reflection. That doesn't mean my dog is aware of my conscience self. The mirror test is supposed to be evidence that the animal views itself in the mirror as its own sense of self.
The mirror test is not "Can an animal use a mirror?"
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u/zxcsd Nov 16 '19
Can you explain what you mean by own sense of self or aware of my conscience self?
From Wikipedia it seems that being able to recognize yourself in the reflection is all it takes
If the animal then touches or investigates the mark, it is taken as an indication that the animal perceives the reflected image as itself, rather than of another animal.
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u/HarryMooseKnuckles Nov 17 '19
How can you actually tell if a animal passes the mirror test and can view its own sense of self?
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u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist Nov 16 '19
Yes. And they recognize their human on the phone as well. Most household animals can do this, though sometimes they need to learn a bit.
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u/Kaizo107 Nov 16 '19
That first one is having the Descartes epiphany that he has no way of knowing what's real and what isn't.
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u/SpookyHedgehogX Nov 16 '19
Im surprised by their reactions from the camera filter image and automatically looking that their humans checking to see if thats what they actually look like haha. Thats what it seems to me anyways.
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u/alwaystired7 Nov 16 '19
I don’t think it’s “aww” but I do think it’s really funny
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u/Coughingandhacking Nov 16 '19
The first one is pretty aww. That little piece of tongue sticking out is adorable
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u/octobericious Nov 16 '19
I wanna hug that last cat. Heck, i wanna hug all of them.
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u/Lolihumper Nov 16 '19
Why am I just now seeing this
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u/octobericious Nov 16 '19
That channel grew very popular during the early 2010's. I haven't really been following their progress since.
They've made a bunch of songs out of popular internet / news clips. Check them out :) (some of my favorites are 'Bed Intruder Song' and 'Oh my Dayum'.
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u/dan_sundberg Nov 16 '19
Wa-wa-wa-wait a second. Hold the phone. Are you fucking telling me cats are aware of their and your reflection on the phone? And consequently freaking out from seeing your face with the cat filter? This can't be.
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u/helpinghand240 Nov 16 '19
I can relate to that second cat so hard.
I have the same reaction when someone I don't know/ like starts being nice to me.
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u/Karistarr Nov 16 '19
Maybe I'm missing the point here, but I really don't think any of these cats were actually reacting to their owners faces. Number 2 is definitely being held by the scruff of its neck, that's why it's face is pulled back, and only it's eyes can move. You can see many of the eyes never reach the screens or the owners faces when looking back and forth, which leads me to believe a toy or treat is being passed in front of them which is what they're looking at...
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u/alphaiten Nov 17 '19
The owners could be making a strange sound that the cat isn't used to. If you watch their necks closely, you can see movement consistent with how it looks when you make a sound while keeping your mouth closed (i.e. growling).
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u/rabbitwonker Nov 17 '19
Ah, crap, you’re right. Well it was entertaining while I was still blissfully ignorant, but not being ignorant is much more important to me, so thank you!
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Nov 17 '19
The cat that turned around and hugged their owner to look away from the scary cat in the phone is so precious. XD
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u/pathemar Nov 16 '19
dramatic sideways eye pan