Cat videos, the gold-standard for Internet entertainment, are not only fun, they're good for your health too, a new scientific study revealed this week.
On Tuesday, researcher Jessica Gall Myrick of Indiana University Media School released the results of a 7,000-person survey in the
journal Computers in Human Behavior. The study showed that cat videos tended to increase energy and positive emotions while decreasing anxiety, annoyance, and sadness in viewers.
"Some people may think watching online cat videos isn’t a serious enough topic for academic research, but the fact is that it’s one of the most popular uses of the Internet today," said Myrick. "If we want to better understand the effects the Internet may have on us as individuals and on society, then researchers can’t ignore Internet cats anymore."
According to Myrick, Facebook, YouTube, Buzzfeed and I Can Has Cheezburger were the most frequently used sites for viewing cat videos, and cat celebrities like Lil Bub, Grumpy Cat, Colonel Meow, and Nyan Cat were among the most viewed.
"We all have watched a cat video online, but there is really little empirical work done on why so many of us do this, or what effects it might have on us," added Myrick, who has a small dog but no cats.
Because many people watch cat videos at work, Myrick took into account the possibility that such procrastination could cancel out any positive effects from watching the videos.
In the end, however, she concluded in a statement
released by the university that, "The pleasure [viewers] got from watching cat videos outweighed any guilt they felt about procrastinating."
"Even if they are watching cat videos on YouTube to procrastinate or while they should be working, the emotional pay-off may actually help people take on tough tasks afterward," she said.
Myrick also found that viewers only sought out cat videos in 25 percent of the time. The vast majority of views came from web surfers who happened upon cat videos.
Myrick donated 10 Cents to Lil Bub's Big Fund for the ASPCA for each person that took the survey, which totaled $700.
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