Cat videos are like catnip to humans

Chances are that you’ve wasted countless hours online watching videos of cats. And, you’re not alone. Those little critters have been seen by hundreds of millions of people.

But have you ever wondered why we’re all so fascinated by these digital felines? Well, in anticipation of the Internet Cat Video Festival on Wednesday in Dallas, KERA's Art&Seek decided to look into the matter.

If you’ve ever seen the video of a cat playing the keyboard, then that means you’re one of the nearly forty-five million people who’ve watched Fatso the Cat on YouTube.

Fatso was one of the first cats to go viral, way back in 2007. But, these days, cat videos go viral more often than Netflix puts out original content. So why are so many people captivated by these lovable hairballs?

Jessica Gall Myrick, a media scholar at Indiana University, says it may have something to do with the effect it has on our behavior.

“What I found was that people reported feeling happier, even more hopeful and more energetic, after watching a cat video than before,” says Myrick.

For her paper, “Emotion regulation, procrastination, and watching cat videos online: Who watches Internet cats, why, and to what effect?” Myrick recruited 6,795 Internet users and asked them how and why they consumed cat videos. What she found out was that the videos seemed to raise their spirits.

“I found out the process of watching cat videos also seemed to dampen negative emotions. They felt less anxious, less angry and less depleted,” says Myrick.

Myrick also learned that people who watch cat videos tend to own cats. The average participant in her study owned more than two cats! But she says that’s not why they’re watching cat videos. They’re watching to interact with people.

“So they weren’t just watching them, they were liking them, they were sharing them, they were commenting,” says Myrick. “I think that watching cat videos actually isn’t just about cats. It’s a really easy way for us to connect with other people.”

That’s something Scott Stulen and the folks at Walker Museum in Minneapolis wanted to take advantage of when they created the Internet Cat Video Festival back in 2012. More at KERA.org.

This story was originally published August 23, 2016 at 8:42 AM with the headline "Cat videos are like catnip to humans."