Thinking about why I can look at cats but not people

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This theory crossed my mind...struck me as interesting....

I'm extremely uncomfortable when I look at people; can't really manage it unless I'm in a good frame of mind, and even then I must force myself with all my willpower. It's part of the Aspie thing, I do believe. So it seems odd that looking straight at cats seems an easy thing, and does not require effort; in fact it becomes my natural orientation. You might speculate this is all straightforward psychology, and my dysfunction is purely psychological or neurotic. On the other hand, humans are programmed at a very low level of our brains to respond to shapes, to images, to symbols. For example, a female shape elicits a particular reaction...this largely transcends personal psychology, I think, and is more fundamental to our species. So I think it's reasonable to suggest that other human social interactions are likewise fundamental. And, as an Aspie, I'm "wired" in such a way that my human interaction circuits tend to overload...somewhat like looking into headlights. But looking at a cat doesn't trigger that overload, because a cat isn't human and doesn't push those buttons. So the cat doesn't trigger that sort of overwhelming feedback, and my response is more natural and less reflexive.

An interesting notion. Can't think of any practical applications for it, though. No use pretending that I'm facing cats rather than people. My imagination isn't good enough to make that stick.

I have 5 cats no problem with them , maybe its the fact you know what a cat wants fed,watered or attention they have their own selfish needs but they dont talk about them

For me eye contact and body language just dont come naturally with people whether its previous negative experiences adding to it or just knowing that being different is enough to make someone else uncomfortable then starting on that thought process just makes things ten times worse ,

you cant really say or do anything wrong to upset a pet if your looking after it and as long as you give it what it needs it wont complain as for people well i just dont get them you can upset them by the way you say something or how you do something ,if i slammed my cats food down and went there thatll keep you quiet she wouldnt hold it against me, if i done that to a person they wouldnt be happy even though there is no ill will attached to it just how someone else perceives you and your actions

With people a lot of emphasis is on eye contact for me i found it hard when i was younger the eye contact was always an issue whether it was i wasnt paying attention, looking at/for something or being questioned and looking dishonest being undiagnosed until recently the more i understand things from then but whether it adds to the discomfort of eye contact is hard to say i dont remember it being any other way , but if cats could talk , demand you fit a certain mould and then question why you dont would you still be as coomfortable?

Some authors argue that the reason is somewhat similar to the reason why many people with SAD have trouble with human eye contact: emotional hyper-activity and/or fear (see below). I suppose cats don't appear as much of a threat?

"Autistics in this study also spent less time fixating the eyes region (deviant eye gaze is a core feature in autism – American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Moreover, in autistics, but not in controls, the amount of eye gaze fixation was strongly correlated with amygdala activation when viewing both, inexpressive or emotional faces (Dalton et al., 2005). This suggests that that eye gaze fixation is associated with emotional and possibly negative arousal in autistics and this could explain why autistics have “trouble looking other people in the eye.” Eye contact and watching the facial expressions are one of the first signs of cognitively healthy infants, are natural to people, and serve to build the basis for successful navigation through a social environment. For an autistic person however, these stimuli may be just too intense or even aversive to cope with and hence they are avoided."

"Typical autistic symptoms, such as averted eye gaze, social withdrawal, and lack of communication, may be explained by an initial over-awareness of sensory and social fragments of the environment, which may be so intense, that avoidance is the only refuge. This active avoidance strategy could be triggered at a very early stage in a child’s development and could progress rapidly with each experience manifesting as a regression, which is striking in some cases. With such early over-specialization, many other important elementary certain skills may never be properly developed to enable normal navigation in a socially rich world with an appropriate understanding of social cues and communication."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article ... -00224.pdf

"Gernsbacher and Frymiare (2005) provided several similar examples of people with autism reporting that it is painful for them to make eye contact because of the emotional significance of the eyes. One study found that “individuals with autism, relative to controls, focused twice as much time on the mouth region of faces and 2.5 times less on the eye region of faces when viewing dynamic social scenes” (Klin et al., 2004, p. 130). Recent psychophysiological research (Kylliainen & Hietanen, 2006) is also consistent with the opinion that people with autism avoid eye contact with others in order to decrease arousal. Similarly, Dalton et al. (2005) reported evidence of an intense emotional response in individuals with autism associated with direct gaze."

"Intriguingly, an adolescent with Asperger syndrome made the following comment on making eye contact with others: “You always feel as if the eyes are actually burning into you...You can either look between their eyes or you can look at the mouth and you don’t feel as if they are actually burning right into you” (Landsman, 2003)."

http://cogprints.org/6799/1/TPRVol59No3-SMITH.pdf

I think it's simply because cats can be more solitary and won't judge you, a cat doesn't care if you're the most hideous person in the world, overweight and a serial killer rapist, it doesn't make any difference to the cat, it won't judge you.

People on the other hand are very conformist and judge others by social rules and expectations. I think it's about feeding the ego, everyone has to feed their ego, as an aspie I'm not so dependant on others, I feed my own ego more which can make me seem a pretentious narcissist. Most people however rely on others to feed their ego and that's where conformism comes in, there are certain set rules in which things are looked up to or looked down on. For example a woman may get new clothes, makeup, hairstyle then rely on her female friends to feed her ego with compliments. The people playing by these rules will also look down on certain things to accentuate the things looked up to which they strive for.

So tldr Cats= non judgemental, people = judgemental and I believe the reason why is to do with feeding the ego with certain rules and conformism which makes it easier for normal people to feed their ego when without they wouldn't actually have much to be proud of.

In my experience, there are plenty of cats that will absolutely judge you. You might argue that a dog will accept you unconditionally -- but only if it regards you as the alpha creature, so you must define the relationship. But some cats have very strong opinions, and they will let you know those opinions and act to enforce them. And even so, I will naturally look all cats right in the eye.

It's been suggested that the cat isn't a threat, but a human is. But for me, I can look in the eye of the meanest, most dangerous cat (I'm talking of domestic cats, not tigers or the like). But I'll fumble looking into the eyes of a child or even a baby. Okay, a house cat isn't exactly dangerous. But it can be more dangerous than a child or a baby. Oh, maybe I should also mention that I find it much easier and more natural to face a threatening dog than an ordinary human. So again, I think my reaction is more of a very low-level reflex rather than something with any high-level logic behind it.

Cats are evil demons and have no souls. Everyone knows that.

Interesting about emotional arousal. There are some eyes that are easier to look than others. The people that are hard to look in the eye either have strong opinions or have anxiety. And others have soft friendly eyes.

I don't just look at my cats in their eyes, I talk to them like people. I will give them a full greeting and keep going and all they really do is meow back at me. I Understand my cats more than anyone in my family. I understand them more than I understand my own family.

Wow I was just saying this the other day because I just got a kitten on Monday and I look him directly in the eye like I never do to humans. He just looks at me, purrs, and kneads on me, and I said the same thing to myself about being able to look the cat in the eye and never a Human!