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See the original image at io9.com

Evolution Explains Why Lolcats Control Your Mind

io9.com — If you're distracted by lolcats at work all day, new evidence from evolutionary biology suggests it's not your fault. A study from Yale explains that human visual attention evolved to track images of animals -- and lolcat images awaken our buried evolutionary impulses.

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  • rollem, on 01/24/2008, -3/+17The evidence from the experiment suggest why lolcats are more interesting to us than lolcars, but not more interesting than any other picture of an animal.
    • doctechnical, on 01/24/2008, -2/+3Of course we pay more attention to lolcats, since lolcars hardly ever take a dump in your shoe.
    • no8286, on 01/24/2008, -0/+1Is it bad that I only looked at the pictures and totally ignored the findings...Hmm I guess the DO control our brains.
  • fruscianteisgod, on 01/24/2008, -16/+2is it just me or does cyberkitty look like the cloverfield monster?
  • hydroplane, on 01/24/2008, -17/+7I, for one welcome our bad spelling feline overlords.
  • 10001110101, on 01/24/2008, -6/+42I never really liked the lolcat meme.. But the Dunecat cracked me up.
  • typicalusername, on 01/24/2008, -7/+2I'm wondering when they're gonna start lolcrocs...
  • Drkboarder, on 01/24/2008, -4/+58And ceiling cat evolved to love watching me masturbate?
    • misfitpanda, on 01/24/2008, -4/+2I just logged in just to dig you up.
      Thank you for your comment and all hail ceiling cat.
  • ElAssoWipo, on 01/24/2008, -3/+22Dunecat made my wife cry of laughter. Thank you for that.
  • Falldog, on 01/24/2008, -6/+2I really don't understand why there are so many different versions of the same pictures. http://imgdump.info/img7509.search.htm
    • JesusFaction, on 01/24/2008, -1/+1Well, they are called image macros for a reason
  • Googler1, on 01/24/2008, -7/+0Thats one big pussy cat
  • valardur, on 01/24/2008, -7/+1Dugg.

    To promote future research on "the bizarrely mesmerizing effect of..." digg
    oh and the Dune cat :P
  • ieataquacrayons, on 01/24/2008, -4/+3Not one comment written by a lolcat yet....I expected at least 25% of the comments to be like that...
    • buymeachicken, on 01/24/2008, -2/+2evolution givez me ur attentionz..
    • dood, on 01/24/2008, -1/+10Lolspeak separate from photographs is painful. I swear, the comments on icanhascheezburger.com posts cause brain cancer.
  • ericduh, on 01/24/2008, -5/+3i just clicked the link to see lolcat pictures. i didn't read anything on that page. i mean...except for the lolcats' words.
  • zeitgueist, on 01/24/2008, -6/+22Evolution? It's just a "theory", guyz. God created us 5000 years ago to like lolcats, in anticipation of the internet. Truly an elegant design.
    • FatherG, on 01/24/2008, -2/+12im in ur universe, fuxing ur design?
    • empiric, on 01/24/2008, -3/+0Desperate to use that "not" for something, eh?

      Still, I'll give you a dollar if you can differentiate this as "explained by evolution" rather than "explained by human survival design".
  • zaklampert, on 01/24/2008, -3/+1whoa. deja vu.
  • iidestined, on 01/24/2008, -5/+4They could have found funnier pictures
  • davidkeithjones, on 01/24/2008, -17/+4Light a cat on fire and give her a good toss, see the mayhem it causes!
    • doctechnical, on 01/24/2008, -7/+1NOT WANT!!!1!
    • davidkeithjones, on 01/24/2008, -4/+2Why are people Digging me down? Its funny you bastards! Every negative Digg makes Tom Cruise eat another baby for Xenu!
    • Chetyre, on 01/24/2008, -0/+2NEDM.
  • daxsymbiont, on 01/24/2008, -10/+4sometimes "science" is so stupid.

    in this case it's summarized to that:

    "the human brain is more hardwired noticing animals than chairs".

    hallo mr obvious. even if you want to put it in a scientific context it has already been done . i remember reading of that stuff years ago.
    • thrallie, on 01/24/2008, -4/+2Actually, it's an important part of evolution. It may seem like nothing to you, but every small piece of evidence fits into the puzzle.
      • daxsymbiont, on 01/24/2008, -3/+2did u read what i said? it does mean something to me, only that in the 24th of January 2007, the brain being more hardwired to notice animals than other objects is old news.

        especially if it's over-hyped as new-news.
        • TehProphet, on 01/24/2008, -1/+4This coming from someone who is a year behind the rest of us...
          • daxsymbiont, on 01/24/2008, -0/+1this coming from someone with no argument.
          • MadScientist440, on 01/25/2008, -0/+0Dude- he got you on the 2007 reference... I'd say that's at least some kind of argument. Discoveries about evolution are just like evolution itself- gradual and incremental over time. Don't expect some earth-shattering discovery about evolution any time soon. This report is somewhat of a new finding, if not a new application of an existing finding. Quit whining.
      • empiric, on 01/24/2008, -0/+0How is this differentiating "evidence"? If you can propose how it is evidence for specifically evolution, rather than the notion of a designed facilitation of living, then it is useful.

        Though I consider evolution and extremely strong model from a scientific standpoint, "evidence" that is just based on paraphrasing "people try to survive" is not particularly useful. It indicates your cognitive bias, but otherwise it's pretty tautological.
    • WoollyMittens, on 01/24/2008, -0/+2Link or it didn't happen.
  • TheJas, on 01/24/2008, -22/+4The only thing more stupid and worthless than "Lolcats" are actual cats in real life. This is the worst Internet fad of all time. The dancing baby is a laugh riot compared to this *****.

    Get a dog like a normal person and stop taking pictures of your damn cat, people.
    • doctechnical, on 01/24/2008, -1/+2Damn cat people?
      Simone Simon and Nastassia Kinski. Mmmm.
  • pundia, on 01/24/2008, -3/+7Invisible joke
  • shockingbird, on 01/24/2008, -4/+21I'm a proud lover of lolcats.
  • BoneheadFarker, on 01/24/2008, -3/+1CAT THREAD!


    You know, sometimes I actually miss Fark. I quickly get over it with a quick GIS, but sometimes...
    • FatherG, on 01/24/2008, -1/+1Odd, with your name I would have thought you have gotten over it
      • BoneheadFarker, on 01/24/2008, -1/+0Nah...the name was chosen as a sign that I was pissed off after getting a 2 day ban during the redesign fallout back at the end of April/beginning of May and that I was choosing Digg over Fark. Plus "Bonehead" was already taken on Digg by a squatter...
  • leerayIG88, on 01/24/2008, -14/+2I hate cats, dogs are so much better.
  • Spankov, on 01/24/2008, -13/+1Blah blah blah evolution blah blah.Blah blah evolutionary blah blah blah blah blah evolution blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah evolution blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah evolved blah blah. Evolution blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
    • orbit1979, on 01/24/2008, -1/+2that reminds me of the bible! just insert "creation".
  • hakz, on 01/24/2008, -2/+1its so amazing that some of our instincts that aren't really needed such as this one these days, are still in us.
  • EricAnderton, on 01/24/2008, -3/+4"I really want to see a study that specifically looks at what happens to our brains while looking at pictures of lolcats to see exactly what part of the brain lights up when I can haz a cheezburger."

    For that matter, we need a study to figure out what the hell is wrong with 4chan users.
  • MadScientist440, on 01/24/2008, -6/+1I think this article is missing a significant point. Domestic cats did not just evolve on their own through natural selection. They were bred by humans through the process of *artificial* selection, just like dogs, corn, bananas, etc. Lolcats, and cats in general, aren't attractive to us just because of how we evolved- they are attractive to us because of how they evolved- those with traits we found attractive were allowed to live and breed.
    • MadScientist440, on 01/25/2008, -0/+0Anyone who buried this comment want to explain your reasoning? Cats are cute because, for thousands of years, human beings have bred cats they find cute and kept them as pets. That is a simple and powerful truth. Artificial selection is responsible for our affinity of cats and dogs. Am I missing something here?
  • MoosaofND, on 01/24/2008, -4/+3Ize in ur vishion, stealin ur attenshun!
  • Tyrghast, on 01/24/2008, -2/+6Cloverfield would have been much better had the monster been a giant cat and the script been written in lolcat
  • NJPENSO, on 01/24/2008, -3/+5See dunecat is funny because it was made before all this 'lolcat' *****. Oh yeah, and 'I can haz cheezeburger' is the ***** thing to happen to the internet ever, I seriously haven't seen one original funny thing come from that site. I miss caturday :/
  • azkid, on 01/24/2008, -2/+1well their just so darn cute. how could you not look and laugh?
  • Vonkhan, on 01/24/2008, -2/+5Ize in ur digg makin u madz
  • shemule, on 01/24/2008, -1/+0The experiment cited is referring to change blindness, and apparently how we can recognize changes in scenes involving animals more quickly. The speculation in the article about how a single image simulates a change blindness testing scenario and how more rapid recognition equates to fascination or control over one's mind is groundless and baffling.
  • ketchupNmustard, on 01/24/2008, -0/+3dugg for the lulz
  • Dakart, on 01/24/2008, -1/+1How many people ignored the text and just looked at the pictures?
  • opticsnake, on 01/24/2008, -0/+8Digg kitteh...

    is diggen
  • Vector713, on 01/24/2008, -0/+7I can haz darwin?
  • rollerboy, on 01/24/2008, -0/+6This article is great I just got hooked on lolcats just 3 days ago. I'm hypnotized.
  • simonbp, on 01/24/2008, -0/+2"The bias for animals, the authors conclude, is like the appendix: present in modern humans because it was useful for our ancestors, even if useless now."

    Not terribly relevant to the subject at hand, but there are some recent theories on the use of the appendix. Doctors generally don't remove it when doing other surgeries anymore because it has some definite uses. Among other things, it's thought to repopulate the gut with helpful bacteria when needed. Wikipedia has the whole scoop. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermiform_appendix
  • Pinmonkey555, on 01/24/2008, -1/+0Yeah, because I totally don't think lolcats are funny because they're you know, just funny. There has to be some "SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH" reason for why everything is anything.
  • YamiJim, on 01/24/2008, -0/+4I KAN HAZ EVOLUSHUNS?!
  • EphemeralFox, on 01/24/2008, -2/+2ALL LOLCATS, LOL, ALL CAPS.
  • missingnoh4x, on 01/24/2008, -0/+1And here I thought it was just because I found the meme funny.
  • ExGhost, on 01/24/2008, -2/+1Buried for being lame
  • EvilMoe1771, on 01/24/2008, -0/+2I just can't keep my eyes off LOLcats all day so I'm coding a little web scraper for icanhascheezburger.com that just loops through them :) You can have a look there if you want: http://unwaba.net/lolcattv/ Just don't leave it running for too long... I didn't get the time to fix the issues with it yet.
  • duffy89, on 01/24/2008, -0/+1lolcats is one of the best things on the internet. =D
  • crabbypants, on 01/24/2008, -0/+2That explains why animal videos always won on America's Funniest Home Videos.
  • kd1s, on 01/25/2008, -0/+1If you ever want a clear picture of what evolution is all about, I suggest you pickup a copy of "Man the Hunted". Good book and it's clear, we evolved forward facing 3D vision due to predation from both cats and large raptors. The book is replete with photos of early hominid skulls with claw marks, talon marks, etc.
  • thenonhacker, on 01/25/2008, -0/+1google starcraft lolcats
  •  

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