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Scientists Have Some Bad News About Your Favorite Viral Cat Videos

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Cat content is its own corner of the internet, and the primary rule is that everything a cat does is either hilarious or adorable. A hissing cat is funny. A cat trying to escape is cute. A cat biting the hand that pets it is just being a cat. Researchers at Adelaide University would like to suggest that we rethink that.

A study published in the journal Anthrozoös analyzed 1,100 comments across 11 human-cat interaction videos on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook—all labeled “play” by their creators, all featuring visible signs of cat distress, including hissing, biting, and attempts to escape. Between 75% and 93% of comments across the videos were positive toward the interaction. The cats were clearly unhappy. The comment sections did not care.

Other studies have circled the same problem. A 2025 peer-reviewed study put 162 popular pet videos under........

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