Good news! Those cat videos you watch at work have beneficial cognitive effects.
A study led by an assistant professor at Indiana University shows that cat clips can improve your mood. We’ve had a hunch about this for a while, but it’s nice to now have some tangible data about the benefits of cat clips. Like this one:
7,000 people participants were asked how they spent their time online, and how much of that time they spent watching cat videos.
“For most people, it improved their mood,” Myrick told Indiana Public Media.
“Specifically, they reported after watching Internet cat videos that they felt more hopeful, more positive, more inspired and they also tended to feel less anxious, less angry — we saw a decrease in negative emotions.”
In 2012, Japanese researcher Hiroshi Nittono also found that pictures of puppies, panda cams, and cat videos improves productivity levels. Participants, divided into three groups, were asked to complete various tasks twice: the first time without any stimulus, and the second by looking at a series of photographs — whether it be babies, animals or neutral subjects like food.
Results showed that those looking at cute animals had a more successful task completion rate.
“If we want to understand the effects the Internet may have on us as individuals and on society,” Myrick said in a statement, “then research can’t ignore Internet cats anymore.”
