Facebook cat person study confirms cat person stereotypes

Monday is International Cat Day, and Facebook is celebrating by making cat owners feel bad about themselves.

Looking to find common characteristics among cat and dog owners, Facebook analyzed the profiles of 160,000 people who posted pictures of either cats or dogs, and classified them as “cat people” and “dog people.” There are slightly more dog people on Facebook.

“Stereotypically, dogs are more social and easy-going, while cats are reserved, independent and unpredictable,” the authors wrote. “Are any of these characteristics reflected in the people who adore them?”

Among the study’s findings: Dog people have more friends, cat people are more likely to be single and dog people are more outdoorsy than cat people.

Dog people had on average 26 more Facebook friends than cat people. However, cat people were invited to more events and both groups checked into roughly the same amount of places.

“Cat people tend to be friends with other cat people and dog people with other dog people,” the authors wrote. “Specifically, cat people are 2.2 times more likely to befriend other cat people when compared to randomly chosen friends from the general population.”

Cat people were only slightly more likely to be single, with 30 percent of cat people and 24 percent of dog people being single. But it’s not limited to the stereotype of the old cat lady.

“Being single and a cat lover isn’t related to age or gender — younger cat-lovers, and male cat-lovers of all ages are just as likely as older female cat-lovers to be single,” the study reads.

Cat people are also more likely to live in cities and prefer the indoors, while dog people tend to live in more rural settings and like more outdoor activities. On the same note, cat people disproportionately like books, TV and movies.

When it comes to books and movies, both groups can agree on The Hunger Games, The Great Gatsby, Frozen and Despicable Me.

“Cat people are especially fond of fantasy, sci-fi, and anime, while dog people like love stories and things about, well, dogs,” the authors wrote.

Disproportionately favored among dog people are books, TV shows and movies such as Marley & Me, Duck Dynasty and The Notebook. Cat people favored Terminator 2, Naruto and Dracula.

Cat people were more likely to describe themselves as tired, annoyed, happy and loved, while dog people more often said they were excited, proud, blessed and fabulous.

While entertaining, the purpose of the study was meant to test Facebook’s object-recognition technology with the dog and cat photos. The study says the social medium uses those tools to improve user experiences, but it can also use it to present you with more targeted advertisements.

This story was originally published August 8, 2016 at 3:20 PM with the headline "Facebook cat person study confirms cat person stereotypes."