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So apparently animals are a very good judge of character, I want to hear everyone's oppinion on this and any stories they might have that relates to it, for example ever seen a pet act very vicious towards someone for no apparent reason? Did it later turn out that they were actually a complete bastard?

Personally I do believe that animals do have good judgement, an animal would have no idea what a person is saying, or their past actions, so you would expect them to look for different characteristics when deciding whether to trust a person or not. Opposed to another person trying to judge them, who could very easily get caught up in the person's carefully constructed version of themselves which they share with the world.

A few weeks ago I was at a party around a friends place, there were around twenty people there, the owners of the house owned a cocky which had it's wings clipped so it could just walk around out of it's cage. Of all the people there it walked up to me and started tapping my foot asking to be picked up (aaaaw), later at the party they had to get it back into the cage, it didn't want to so it started flapping around running everywhere, it freaked out whenever it's owner touched it, but it ran over to me and hopped onto my hand when I held it out...it then jumped off and headbutted the ground when its owner came over. This cocky had never seen me before that night and the fact that it let me pick it up before it's owner was interesting. For the sake of believing that this bird complimented me, I am going to say that animals are a very good judge of character.

This post has been edited by matty_batty0: 08 May 2011 - 04:14 AM

No, they are not.

Next topic.

A lot of people would say otherwise...would you much rather I start another controversial debate, which these forums have so few of, about global warming instead?

This post has been edited by matty_batty0: 24 January 2011 - 11:08 AM

Tee hee~

I believe they are, but I believe we should be very careful when interpreting the signals they send, since we are terrible judges of animal characters. For instance, a dog may bark at a human for a wide range of reasons. One of these might be the actual personality of the person they are shouting at, but this does not mean that everybody who has ever had a dog do such to them must be a complete jerk.

Multiple animals cannot be a singular judge. So technically no. But on the subject of whether an animal can be a good judge of character, Iunno could be.

This post has been edited by Scotch: 24 January 2011 - 11:14 AM

I've seen countless dogs bark at people because they were black.

No, they're not. In my opinion, at least.
Also, to be a good judge of character, you have to have time to judge the character of a person.
Supposing animals were capable of creative intelligence, a quick reaction to a person's character would make them psychic, not good judges =D

matty_batty0, on 24 January 2011 - 10:51 AM, said:

I've read in a lot of books that when the main charactor is crying, the animal snuggles with them. But since I don't have a pet of my own, I really can't make an educated choice.

well if you act sad slumped on the sofa
my dog will walk over to you look you in the eyes and rest his head on your chest and won't go away ....

(he is very big)but...
i don't think he can tell whether someone is a murderer

matty_batty0, on 24 January 2011 - 10:51 AM, said:

You're right. We don't have enough shitty topics trying to solve all the problems in the world from the comfort of a webcomic forum.

I don't think people are giving pets enough credit, animals are sensitive enough to start acting strangely before natural disaster occur, very sensitive to little things as well, in thunder storms dogs will often freak out and try to escape, is it really that hard to believe that their instincts will help them effectively work out who is trustworthy and who is not? I mean dogs are social animals just as humans are and had to rely on the pack for survival.

It really doesn't take that long to judge someone's character, surely everyone would have, at least a few times in their life, got a feeling about someone after only knowing them for a few minutes "wow this guy is a dick!" and a few weeks later found out that they were absolutely right about them in every way.

This post has been edited by matty_batty0: 24 January 2011 - 04:57 PM

Yes, I have gotten that feeling before, and it's one reason why I tend to trust gut instinct.

However, just like people, animals can have their own neuroses which can impair their judgement. My sister's boyfriend's dogs are skittish and will bark or growl at anyone strange or unfamiliar to them, regardless of how friendly that person may be.

If you're right about that instinct, cool, you predicted it.

But if you're wrong:
(about a person being a dick) you'll be a major ass doing prejudice against that person.
(about a person being super nice) maybe you'll hurt yourself or that person will take advantage of you easily.

The stakes are too high for me to trust gut instinct.

Not my pets...especially not my dog.

Someone watches too many talking animal movies.

Lyucs, my gut instinct tells me you're basically a nice guy. Am I wrong?

Seriously, the reason I trust my gut instinct is that it's saved my bacon more than once. If you feel something is wrong, then something probably is wrong, and it's worth being cautious.

Worth being cautious, yes, but only because it is better to be prepared than unprepared. You can be careful without judging others. ^_^

Well, I could be faking niceness =P
In truth, I hate eeeevery single one of you and I'm here only to troll people. MWHAHAHAHA
Wait, I wrote that?
(this joke is better said then written...)

Oh, for those situations I apply the
"Hope for the best, expect the worst" policy

Well, good thing for you if you usually have good instincts... just be sure to leave some room for doubt =D

This post has been edited by Lycan: 24 January 2011 - 07:01 PM

My dogs seem to know when someone means me harm. I think that they perceive what behavioral cues I give, to some extent. Is there understanding? I don't know. Probably not.

But to answer your question, one way or another, my dogs are good judges of character.

matty_batty0, on 24 January 2011 - 08:35 AM, said:

That just sounds like it's afraid of its owner, perhaps he/she abuses it?

Animals, especially pets are way smarter than we give them credit for. For example my cat must be able to understand me some what since whenever I mention fish she'll run up to the fish tank and look at me expectantly, (I let her have a little fish food when I feed the fish) and when she meows I can tell whether she's asking to go outside or for food or simply for attention.

They say an adult cat is as intelligent as a 4 year old.

Animals can detect human pheromones, which at the very least would tell an animal your current mood, I don't know.

I highly doubt animals can magically tell your personality just by meeting you.

Honestly I don't think there's enough (if at all) scientific evidence to say animals are good at judging people's personality. Sure, a lot of them are capable of detecting natural disasters.. but animals aren't psychic or anything. I'm sure they pick up cues somehow. When it comes to pets in particular, for example, dogs, they act based on the behavior of others. They can pick up physical cues that can make a dog feel threatened or afraid. Some pets act on the cues of their owners. If their owners seem nervous when speaking with another person, dogs can pick this up and can find the other person threatening. If some pets are such good at judging others characters, why do some bad people have pets? Wouldn't those pets attack their owners if they could detect that they were bad?

Overall, I believe animals are more just capable of picking up different and numerous cues more so than humans, which would make us inclined to think that they have this ability of being able to judge others.

This post has been edited by Aika: 24 January 2011 - 08:34 PM

This topic is bad, and you should feel bad.

Judge of character? I'd say it's a definite maybe. Though some animals are much more stupid than others. They can be smart in other ways too, though.

One of my dogs from back in the day would bark at the window at nothing in order to get all the others off the dog bed to bark with her so she could steal the bed for herself in the confusion.

People change, a lot. Character is intangible and is something that can't be judged by an animal. Okay, maybe animals are better judges of character, but even if so I would never make a bad judgement on someone just cause I thought my cat was thinking the same thing. It's one of those things that involves vocal communication or your own personal judgement.

I hit my cats because they use the litterbox right when I start eating and downing noodles to the smell of cat shit isn't pleasant, I think that voids their opinion of me.

And their bowels.

Um well by that logic everyone who knows me is horrible. My cat hates every living thing in the world except me.

Animals must be judging and observing people all the time, my friend's dog is normally very gentle and meeting new people isn't too rare for it, but it has always been overly aggressive towards a few people, these people are not really different to anyone else the dog is meeting but it still hates them, it must have some reason for this.

matty_batty0, on 25 January 2011 - 06:23 AM, said:

No, it just has preferences. Just as humans do, and other intelligent life forms.

I have yet to meet a cat that hates me, they are all always jumping on my lap, and rubbing my leg. Dogs however hate the heck out of me.

Lvl 50 Fighter, on 25 January 2011 - 06:53 AM, said:

I wish I were you. I mean, I'm the same when it comes to being loved by cat's but. I wish dogs would leave me alone. But there okay I guess, not as bad as Horses.

ClosetLucy said:

Context is a wonderful thing.

This post has been edited by Lycan: 25 January 2011 - 03:54 PM

Cats and I have a mutual unspoken agreement to stay the hell away from each other.

(Yes, I'm a dog person.)

This post has been edited by Kaxbe: 25 January 2011 - 06:42 PM

matty_batty0, on 25 January 2011 - 06:23 AM, said:

Well, they're definitely observing people all the time. If your dog is being aggressive towards a few people, it's most likely due to certain cues and actions that make your dog uncomfortable in some way. You can't really say everyone approaches your dog the same way, because to your dog, each person is different.

I don't think so. My dog is racist towards white people and her parents were towards black people....

Oh, well. I guess somehow animals can have a sense of judgment. But it depends on the animal. You see, dogs behave differently from cats and each individually behave very singularly. They HAVE personalities (duhh), just like humans, except their brain is not as developed. So you could say that animals have their own preferences, instead of being so generic to the point of saying animals are good at judging character. You see, it's just the same with people, except we have a stronger notion of memory than animals, which make changing our opinions way easier than to an animal.

...btw I do believe we're talking about spined-chordates that are not fish or amphibians--or maybe only mammals, right? 'Cause otherwise I could say batantly that my pet coackroach is definitely not a good judge of character. Not a joke, though I don't have a pet coackroach.

"But the animal loves him, how bad can he be?" are people thinking of something like that? It all depends on the animal. Well... this is what I've observed with dogs though. Some pets only like their owners and are aggressive to other people. Some pets bite everyone and must be caged. If a new dog sees a stranger but notices that the other dogs are fond of the person then it'll like that person instantly too. Animals don't judge by character but they judge by how a person treats them. That said, even the worse sort of people can be loved by their pets.

That said... once someone eats dog meat, that person become enemies to all dogs. Every dog barks at them, some even try chasing and biting. Worse than the mail man.

Quote

The cats hate you; however, they also have the presence of mind to realise that they can use you for their own gain. The lap is for heat, and the rubbing is for showing their possession of you. ^_^

ILB, on 26 January 2011 - 11:52 AM, said:

How could I have missed it. It's so clear to me now. Well whatever at least they don't try to bite me, or bark at me whenever I get near.

So me and cats are cool.

MouseCat, on 26 January 2011 - 03:41 AM, said:

This is an Urban Myth

So is the notion that animals are a good judge of character.

ClosetLucy, on 27 January 2011 - 05:30 AM, said:

Well, even if it is... this part of the world has people who do eat dogs. And they are barked upon. So the myth has some point of origin.

Tee hee, Fighter~

BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK

Don't be a Paulo.

This post has been edited by wacko: 27 January 2011 - 03:30 PM