The two particular cat photos they chose for the study seem almost comical, like a parody of a posed cat photo trend from the 80s. There are much more “normal” ways to have a picture with a cat that I wonder if they would perform differently.
Exactly. And this really continues the whole idea that when you have thousands of "researchers" (people) who are judged solely upon quantity/acceptance hierarchy of published papers -- and what's at risk is their livelihoods -- you end up with lots of BS unreproducible research that can't be relied upon.
Exactly! Especially in comparison to the non-cat pictures.