They needed a study for this? Our cat would probably kill me if I didn’t fight back (he and my husband FIGHT - biting, hitting, etc. for play, but I have had to teach him I AM NOT game....)He has tried....I have the scars to prove it. (We got him as a feral kitten.)
We had a cat who would beg for pets, but when he was done, he would bite and scratch.
I cured him of doing it to me by walking away from him each time he reacted that way.
Cats love attention, and depriving them of it after bad behavior is a humane way to direct/alter them to be polite.
Eventually he would sleep on my lap, and he never scratched or bit me again.
My last cat was a big beautiful gray-striped tom. He didn’t go outside, so the only things he ever killed were the crickets that got inside. But that instinct was there all the time. One of our games was “kill my legs.” I would make eye contact with him, and start to slowwwwly back away. His eyes got that fixated stare and he crouched like a little lion in the grass. I backed away a little faster, and then turned and ran, and he would unfailingly streak after me and murder my ankles. Lots of fun, and the scars were worth it, LOL.