Study Who looks at cat videos on the Internet, is in a better mood

Cats videos on the internet are in a good mood
Cats videos on the Internet enjoy great popularity. Hardly any other topic thrilled so many users. But why is it like that? An American researcher investigated this question and made the cat videos her research object. The result: "Videos of cute and clumsy kittens increase well-being and lift the mood."

Scientist makes cat videos on the Internet to her research object
"Some people may think watching online cat videos is not a serious topic for academic research, but the fact is these videos are now one of the most popular forms of Internet usage," said Jessica Gall Myrick, a graduate student at Indiana University. "If we want to better understand the impact of the Internet on us as individuals and society, researchers can no longer ignore the cat videos on the Internet."
Evaluations have revealed that more than two million cat videos were posted on YouTube last year, viewed over 26 billion times. No other topic has as many clicks per video as the cat videos.

Sweet cat videos are in a good mood. (Ermolaev Alexandr-fotolia)

"We've all looked at a cat video online before, but there's really little empirical work on why so many of us do it, or what it could do to us," says the researcher, who has a pug but no cat , "As a media researcher and user of internet cat videos, I felt compelled to collect some data on this phenomenon of pop culture."

Anyone looking at cat videos at work is more motivated afterwards
Myrick wanted to find out why people watch cat videos on the internet and how animals influence mood. For this purpose, she evaluated the data from around 7,000 study participants. As it turned out, watching cat videos has been shown to improve mood. After watching the videos, the subjects stated that they felt less negative feelings such as fear, anger or grief. In addition, the study found that most users of Internet cat videos watch them during their working hours or studies. The joy they felt in watching the videos outweighed the guilt of having to do something else during this time.

"Even if they watched the cat videos on YouTube as procrastinating while they were working, the emotional gain can actually motivate them to take on challenging tasks again," explains Myrick. The Cat Video Study was supported by the Lil-Bub Foundation, a foundation for "Animals with Special Needs". (Ag)