Are You A Cat Whisperer?
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While dogs openly demonstrate joy or displeasure through grins and grimaces, discerning a cat's emotions from its face is often hard, even for its owners. Now, researchers from Canada's University of Guelph assert that stoic as they may appear, cats also express emotions on their faces — one just has to learn how to interpret them!
For their study, Professors Lee Niel and Georgia Mason recruited 6,300 people from 85 countries. The participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire and watch 20 short cat videos, obtained mostly from YouTube. Each clip highlighted just the cat’s face — its eyes, muzzle, and mouth — and gave no clues to its surroundings or circumstances. The viewers did not have to determine the cat's exact emotion, but just decide whether it was in a positive state, a negative state, or if they were unsure.
The researchers, who published their findings in the November 2019 issue of Animal Welfare, found that only 13 percent, or 819 participants, were able to read the cats' emotions accurately over 75 percent of the time. Further research showed that the so-called "cat whisperers" were primarily women and veterinarians or vet technicians. Younger adults also seemed to be able to read the expressions better than older individuals.
"The fact that women generally scored better than men is consistent with previous research that has shown that women appear to be better at decoding non-verbal displays of emotion, both in humans and dogs," said Mason. Surprisingly, being a cat owner did not help study participants, indicating that a strong attachment to the animal did not necessarily mean better understanding of its emotions.
Fortunately, all is not lost for cat owners who are unable to tell their pet's moods. The researchers believe the skills are not innate but learned over time, which explains why veterinary staff scored high in the study. "This is important to be able to do because it could help strengthen the bond between owners and cats, and so improve cat care and welfare," said Niel.
To find out if you have what it takes to be a "cat whisperer," take the fun, interactive catfaces quiz created by the study's researchers.
Resources: catdogwelfare.wixsite.com
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684 Comments
gtornado2846about 2 monthsI have 5 cats oscer,Mimi,tj,and mace and thay are all so cute and oscer like talks to but like mowing and it is so cute!- if30992 monthsI'm a cat Whisperer. the reason, I have 17 outdoor cats, and when you are around them a lot you start to understand how they feel and what they want
awesomekumani2 monthsI have a cat-her name is Gracie-and she and I really understand each other-like I can really trust her because I let her out whenever she feels like going out and I can trust her not to run away. Sometimes we even go on walks.
kafamacesyno6 monthsI really wish I had a cat.
marleydelyla137 monthsYes I am bc my cat and I basically have full grown convos lol
summer_beachabout 1 yearI am able to tell a cats mood by there face but mostly by there body language, there tail and posture can tell you a lot more than there face! 😺😽🙀😿😾
looneabout 1 yearI loved reading this!
kaylee-loveabout 1 yearI just got a new cat, named cutie pie by my sister. I also have a 90 year old cat named Jaxson...(By my dad).
bezuhuni-168114481249over 1 yearcats are the most cute kind compasionate pets ever !!!!
munuvynujakuover 1 yearME NEED CAT NOW
