It is an unspoken agreement between cats and their owners that emotions are not tolerated in their bond. Cats will walk away from you right in the middle of you pouring your heart out to what you thought was a willing, invested audience. You might humor yourself by interpreting their nonchalant attitude as a definitive answer to let it go of your stress, but there is more to how *insert cat’s name here* is interpreting your emotional cues that result in its response.
How do we know this? Well to start we need to define these emotional cues. In a 2015 study, Galavan and Vonk defined their emotional cues as being either positive or negative. Positive cues included smiling, relaxed posture while sitting, laughing while speaking, careless, open hand gestures, and a bright, friendly vocal intonation. In their experiment they aligned these behaviors with happiness. The negative emotional cues included stiff posture, closed fists, angry facial expressions, and hard, tense vocal intonation. These behaviors were categorized as angry. The subjects in Galvan and Vonk’s study were domesticated cats ranging in age from 1 to 12 years, who on average had been living with their owner for 4 years. Most of the cats participating in the study had been former stray or shelter raised cats who had to adapt to be in a home environment. Galvan and Vonk tested two sets of cats in two different experiments. In both experiments they hypothesized that: cats with a close personal relationship to humans would alter their behavior in accordance with two basic human emotions: happiness and anger” (Galvan & Vonk, 2105).
Their first experiment took place in the home of the cats owner. The cat was brought into a room they spent the most time in and was exposed to either their owner (a familiar) or the experimenter (an unknown) displaying either happy or angry physical emotional cues. There were four trials the cat went through in varying order: unfamiliar happy, familiar happy, unfamiliar angry, and familiar angry. The cats approach to the person displaying the emotion was compared across trials. It was found that cats were more sensitive to emotions displayed by the owner, and more likely to approach and spend greater time in contact with the owner in the happy conditions.
In the second experiment the cats were brought into an unfamiliar laboratory setting. They were exposed to their owners having a conversation with the experimenter. These conversations were mostly scripted for having happy or angry tones to them. The answer was free to move their body or and lib the conversation as long as they did not overtly show happiness or anger while speaking. The results of this study found that the cat was more likely to look to their owners for cues on what was happening during the happy and angry conversations than they would the unfamiliar experimenter.
From these experiments Galvan and Vonk found that cats respond more actively to positive body language displayed by their owners when they are in familiar settings. This may be due to the cat’s association of the owner’s happy behavior with a rewards of food, petting, or toys that makes the cat happy as well. Unlike their dog counterparts cats are not always socialized to be social animals so they did not respond to the unfamiliar experimenter’s emotional displays beyond avoiding, ignoring, or looking to their owners. Overall Galvan and Vonk’s study provided evidence to support the idea that domesticated cats, once they have lived with an owner for some time, can develop responses that align with positive emotional cues displayed by the owner. This is probably why they are more likely to rub and let you pet them when you are lounging on the couch, or when you happily walk through the door. Whereas when you are visibly upset or angry, when they make sure to steer clear or leave your area.
Reference
Galvan, M., & Vonk, J. (2015, 09). Man’s other best friend: Domestic cats (F. silvestris catus) and their discrimination of human emotion cues. Animal Cognition, 19(1), 193-205. doi:10.1007/s10071-015-0927-4
Marissa Soto
October 16, 2018 — 3:45 am
I think this topic about cats is very interesting because many people, including myself, believe cats do not necessarily have a strong attachment towards their owners than dogs normally do. I personally feel like it is very difficult to find a cat that will react to an individual’s emotions whether it be the owner or stranger because of how independent they are, but I hope this experiment is true. I have always cuddled with my three cats I have owned in different time periods of my lifetime when I was upset, but I was the one going to my cat. I just picked them up and carried them where I wanted to lay down and cry. I want a cat that will go to me when I need comfort instead of me looking for them.
Selena Lomeli
October 16, 2018 — 4:12 pm
It is very interesting that the cats looked to their owner for cues on how to respond. I especially was intrigued by their avoidance when the owner is displaying negative emotions. I think its an instinct to avoid confrontation, and that is why they may steer clear of you when you are upset or angry.
Emma Davis
October 16, 2018 — 6:59 pm
That’s so interesting! Cats being able to detect emotional cues from their humans. I’m allergic, but I desperately want to get to know a cat well enough to see this for myself. (Although I hope I would never be so angry that my cat caught on!)
Amber Mills
October 17, 2018 — 3:47 am
I totally can relate to the “nonchalantness” of cats and I’m happy there is some research to explain what their behavior is.
Alice Edwards
October 17, 2018 — 5:02 am
And people didn’t believe me when I told them cats cared about our feelings
Ladream Taylor
October 17, 2018 — 6:30 am
This makes a lot of sense and really reflects the behaviors shown by cats at my job when their owners are present verse absent.