Does Your Cat Know When You Are Feeling Down? Here Is What Science Says
When you collapse onto the sofa on a bad evening and your cat comes to curl up in your lap, it may not be a coincidence.
Research carried out at Oakland University in the US showed that cats can tell apart changes in the facial expressions and tone of voice of the person they live with. The old prejudice that 'cats are ungrateful and don't care about anyone' looks rather weak in light of these findings!
Cats react to their owners' facial expressions.
The study, led by psychologists Moriah Galvan and Jennifer Vonk and published in the journal Animal Cognition, consisted of two experiments. In the first, cats were shown signs of happiness and anger, using only facial expressions and body language without any sound, both by their owners and by a researcher they had never met. In the second, the cats listened to a cheerful or tense conversation between their owners and the researcher.
The results showed that cats are not indifferent to human emotions. The animals changed their behavior especially when their owner's expression changed, and they showed more affection toward their owners when they were smiling. A stranger's facial expression, on the other hand, did not affect the cats much.
Your cat doesn't notice that you're sad, but it notices that something has changed.
According to the researchers, this sensitivity is rooted in cats' attachment to routine. A cat that waits for its food at the same time every day and knows who is coming from the sound of the door can also easily pick up small differences in its owner's tone of voice, movements and facial expressions.
Not every cat that notices the change reacts the same way. Some come over curiously and rub against you, while others may feel uneasy about the unusual mood and choose to keep their distance.
The findings have a limit, too: Moriah Galvan and Jennifer Vonk stress that cats are only modestly sensitive to emotions. In other words, your cat doesn't feel sad the way you do, but it knows that something is different today.
Our friends known as 'ungrateful' are watching us much more closely than we think.
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