Human-Cat Psychology: Do Cats Improve Our Mood and Become Attached to Us?
"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats." -- Albert Schweitzer
Last year I covered 5 unusual studies on the psychology of dogs and their owners. This kicked off a comment thread which discussed how dogs act as ice-breakers, how they might mediate the tension between couples and how long after you died they would wait to feast on your flesh.
Apparently dogs wait longer than cats although I'm pretty sure there's no experimentally controlled evidence for this.
But what about cat-lovers and research into the psychology of cats? Inspired by MindHacks, I've uncovered a small literature on cats' effects on human mood, their ability to become attached to their owners, their personalities and our relationships with them.
Can cats improve your mood?
Cats are frequently accused of being selfish, but it's humans who are often being a little selfish when they get a cat - they hope it will give them pleasure. But do cats really consistently improve mood - was Albert Schweitzer right?
Research carried out by anthrozoologists suggests he was. A recent Swiss study recruited 212 couples with cats and compared how both their cat and their partner affected their mood.
Their results showed that, in line with previous studies, cats could alleviate negative moods but were unlikely to promote positive moods. People's positive moods were more associated with their partners.
So it's a cautious thumbs-up for cats - they might not make you burst into song, but they'll take the edge off a bad day.
Is your cat really attached to you?
The reason that cats can alleviate negative moods is often attributed to attachment - the emotional bond between cat and owner. But cats are well-known for being fickle so do they really become attached to their owners?
Remarkably there's actually been a quite sophisticated study on cat attachment behaviour towards their owners.
The classic procedure for investigating attachment in humans is the 'strange situation'. It tests how infants react to their mother (or father) leaving the room and then returning.
Well, this Mexican research used a similar procedure, but on cats. Analysis of the cats' behaviour suggested they were indeed emotionally attached. While the cats were with their owners they appeared more relaxed and were more likely to explore their environment.
This is pretty good ammunition for all cat-owners who are fed up with being told by cat-haters that cats don't care about...well...anything other than food and catnip.
What is your cat's personality?
So it seems that cats can alleviate negative moods and become attached to humans, but do they actually have personalities of their own?
Most cat-owners would say yes. Indeed in this study owners were asked to rate their cats on 12 items and when these were analysed, four dimensions of cat personality emerged. These were the extent to which their cat was:
- Active, clever, curious, and sociable.
- Emotional, friendly and protective.
- Aggressive and bad-tempered.
- Timid.
Remember these aren't categories but rather dimensions, so that a cat might receive a rating on each of these four dimensions which altogether would make up their personality.
With a bit of imagination these four factors can be superimposed on the widely agreed five factors of human personality: the first factor is like extraversion, the second could be neuroticism, the third factor agreeableness and the last factor openness to experience.
Obviously the final human factor, conscientiousness, has no place in the psychology of cats - whoever heard of a conscientious cat?
One legitimate criticism of this research is that people are just imagining or projecting personalities onto their cats. But these dimensions do line up with previous research on cat personality which has been carried out by people rating cats they didn't know.
How to develop a good relationship with your cat
Like any relationship, that between a cat and a human seems to require give and take, especially since cats are so independent.
Dr Dennis Turner from the Institute for Applied Ethology and Animal Psychology has carried out a series of studies investigating how humans and cats interact (e.g. this one).
From his research Dr Turner argues that the best relationships between cats and humans are found when humans respect a cat's independence.
Of course anyone who actually owns a cat hardly needs to be told that!
Random cat psychology facts
Here are some other random cat facts I uncovered:
- Fat cat facts: Owners of obese cats can't see how fat their cats really are. Also, unlike the owners of fat dogs, owners of fat cats tended not to be overweight themselves.
- Cats sent off to quarantine are friendlier, more affectionate and more timid when they return home.
- Cats lack a sweet taste receptor - so there's another reason, along with the fact that it can seriously harm or kill them, not to feed them chocolate.
Any other cat psychology facts you'd like to add? Please do add a comment below...
» This is part of a series on the psychology of the everyday.
[Image credit: swanky]
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I have a ten month old kitten and she loves to show affection. My only problem is that she loves to show her affection by "making biscuits" with her claws into my chest. I want to love on her and hold her but that is all she wants to do 90% of the time. Got any ideas? I don't want to declaw her because I think it's cruel.
My cat shows affection sometimes by either licking my chest hair or my arm pit hair. Funny, I know, but it's cute. Unfortunately, it also hurts because of the velcro-like bones in his toung. Sometimes I interpret this as my cat taking care of me by cleaning me. Other times I interpret this as my cat regressing to kittenhood and thinking he is nursing.
My cat does that too and it can get a bit painful when her nails are long. I'm assuming you've already tried clipping her nails frequently...?
Just clip her claws. She thinks you're the mommy/her bed -- so she's kneading the surface.
I would love to clip her nails but she is so hyper, due to the little kitten that is in her, I can hardly get her to stay still to even untangle her whenever she's tangled up in her yarn ball. She wails and yells like I'm hurting her whenever I'm trying to get her untangled but I'm not even really touching her! So, clipping her nails would be really hard right now. I've been draping a quilt over me before she lies down and it helps but only a little. I only just got her a couple of weeks ago so I'm still learning her likes, dislikes, pet peeves and food rotations. So there is still a lot of learning going on between us.
Conscientious cats? Well, they are a bit obsessive about cleanliness!
Use some very gentle negative reinforcement. If claws touch skin, say "owch" or something like that and gently put her down. Don't scream or jump or do anything that will make her fearful, all you want to do is deprive her of cuddles. Then, and this is most important, when she jumps back up, give her all your attention when she's not digging her claws into you. It will take some time but she will learn that not giving you acupuncture will bring good things. It may take a long time, be patient. Sometimes it helps to give them a sacrificial stuffed animal or sweater to puncture, the kneading is very comforting for them. Many cats go nuts over really soft stuff like angora. You can set the criteria, such as everything is OK except skin and my good blouses. Some of my cats now lay on their back and "do the paw thing", which is non-painful and makes visitors laugh.
I think arm pit kitty is grooming you, I had one that would try to clean my eyelids, yeow. I guess it's a compliment.
My husband said my cat was depressed while I was away. I am also very attached to her. For Joan: Cats can learn. When she jumps up and starts scratching, swat her and put her down each and every time. She'll learn.
what you can do is start massaging her paws when she's just relaxing with you. That will get her used to you touching her paws. In some time, she'll become comfortable enough for you to trim the nails. Worked for me, and my cat was a total spazball when she was younger. Totally nuts.
Thanks so much for everyone's advice. I'll keep you updated.
Yes, they will - but only if you show them the same love and respect. A cat's love is not unconditional. You can't just treat them as some home accessory.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Look at a household where the humans don't pay much attention to their cat, and you'll find a quiet cat. One that has given up on trying to talk with their humans, because the humans won't listen. In places where the humans do actually give a damn and talk to their cats, you'll find the cats are much more 'chatty' and vocalise more often.
I agree Neko. My cat, Gotham, is the most talkative cat. Just today when I was walking up to the front door I could already hear her meowing for me to come inside. She definitely let's me know when something is on her mind! And it's so cool how one meow sounds completely different from another. I can tell, already, when this meow means that she's hungry or that meow means she wants attention. It's amazing! I feel like freakin' Doctor Doolittle sometimes. But, the bottom line is that I haven't even had her a month yet and I've fallen in love with her. She's purrfect!
I have a fat cat and I *know* that she's fat. She weighs about 18 pounds (I think. Haven't weighed her in a while). She came to us fat. We've tried just about everything to help her lose weight, but it isn't going to happen, apparently.
To Amy: I had three cats who each weighed about 17 pounds and I got weight off of them by feeding them canned food with no grains (cats store carbs as fat - their bodies don't know what to do with them) and by throwing their toys back and forth across the room every night. They would run and chase them, getting lots of great exercise. They're now under 15 pounds and still losing. My Maine Coon mix is a large cat and 15 pounds is fine for him, but the others still have a ways to go. This is the only thing that has worked for mine.
To Joan: If your cat likes treats, you can try rewarding her after successful nail trims with treats. Ollie, my maine coon mix, was a total spaz when he was a kitten and after trying to trim his nails I would end up a bloody mess, but persistence and rewards paid off in the end, and he's just fine with it now.
I have another cat that was overweight and the key to his successful weight loss was the indoor formula dry food that Purina has. It has a little less fat in it because it's designed for cats that don't go outside. My tabby lost about 5 pounds on this food. We fed him just 1 and a half cups of this food a day and about every three days we would feed him a can of nine lives canned cat food. He has kept the weight off and I can tell that he feels better. See if this works for you. Good luck :-)