My cat only likes to be stroked on her own terms - but she does like it. When she gets tired of it, she has her own way of telling me to knock it off.
A cat? Lie? Surely you jest!
I don’t know, maybe the researchers were stroking them wrong? I’ve notice that cats don’t really like to be just “stroked”, per se, but they like to be “scratched”. Try to pet a cat front to back, along the grain of the fur, and often they will move around and try to get your hand some other place that they want you to be rubbing or scratching for them. Behind the ears is always a crowd pleaser.
Let me guess at this researcher’s methodology. Cat goes to strange office to be observed. Strange person goes into room and pets cat. Cat is scared because it is in a strange place with strange people who are touching said cat. Researchers act surprised when cat releases pheromones associated with being scared.
They're fickle like that.
When they want petted, they like being petted. When they don’t want petted, petting them just makes them angry. I won’t restate my theory about guys being like dogs and women being like cats here.
My guess is that they forced themselves on a bunch of cats that weren’t in the mood.
They're just marking you as their property.