Dogs may
have stolen the Internet from cats, but cat memes endure - and many center on
one theme: Cats are aloof jerks.
The primary
ambassador of this notion, naturally, is Grumpy Cat. But cats of all sorts,
these memes tell us, desire to be left alone with their coffee, or demand
darkness, or prefer ankle attacks to head scratches.
Okay, maybe
you know cats that fit the bill. But it is not the case that "cats skew
toward independency", in the words of a new study on cat social behavior.
In fact,
researchers at Oregon State University found, many pet and shelter cats are
pretty eager to interact with humans - particularly people who seek out kitty
caresses.
"In
both groups, we found [cats] spent significantly more time with people who were
paying attention to them than people who were ignoring them," said KristynR. Vitale, a postdoctoral scholar in animal behavior and the lead author of thepaper, which was published in the journal Behavioral Processes.
This may
come as little surprise to people who have spent time with cats, some of which
might be confused with lap dogs.
Nor was it a
great surprise to Vitale, whose previous research found that cats will choose
to interact with humans over food or toys.
But the idea
that cats are attuned to our behavior and respond to it remains somewhat novel,
because despite cats' popularity as pets, little research has been done on
their social relations with people.
That might
be, the study says, "due in part to a common misconception that cats are not
a social species" - the meme fodder.
"It's a
cool study, and it does show that when we're attentive to cats, they are
interested," said Mikel Delgado, a postdoctoral fellow who studies cat
behavior at the University of California at Davis's School of Veterinary
Medicine.
The study
consisted of two experiments. In the first, 46 cats - half at a shelter, half
at their own homes - were placed in a room with a stranger who sat still on the
floor.
For two
minutes, the person pretty much ignored the cat; for another two minutes, the
person could call the animal by name and pet it freely when it approached. The
second involved only pet cats, who went through the same two cycles with their
owners.
On average,
the cats spent much more time near the human when showered with attention,
Vitale said.
Delgado
praised the "cat-directed" design of the study, noting that previous
research has suggested that cats are usually more into interactions that they
instigate.
"Even
in the attentive phase, the cat had a lot of control, and that's really what we
think they like - the ability to leave," Delgado said. "It's not that
they're aloof. It's just that they want choice."
The 23
shelter cats in the study, whose stays at the Heartland Humane Society in
Corvallis, Oregon, ranged from three to 455 days, spent more time than pet cats
interacting with the inattentive person, which Vitale said could reflect that
those felines needed attention or that their living situation conditioned them
to unfamiliar people.
John
Bradshaw, a University of Bristol biologist who has long studied cat behavior,
cautioned against reading much into the differences between the two groups,
because cats are territorial, and only the pets were tested in familiar
surroundings.
"Cats
behave quite differently depending on whether they know the place they're
in," Bradshaw said.
But Bradshaw
said the study importantly emphasized that cats are kind of like us at an
individual level: Sure, some are aloof. But some are plenty friendly.
Why that is
remains unclear, though he said his own work has pointed to "a complex
interplay between genetics, early experience of humans, and learning during
adolescence."
The takeaway
for cat owners, Vitale said, is that it's worth making the first move even the
most detached-seeming kitty.
"In my
opinion, it's very important to go out and try to interact with your cat and
see what happens," she said.
"I
think there's this idea that dogs are this way, and cats are that way. But
there's a lot of variability in both populations."
By offering
a little love to a grumpy cat, Vitale added, "you may actually be helping
them become more social toward you."
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Washington Post
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was originally published by The Washington Post.
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