Our study shows that the correct interpretation of feline emotional cues from photographs are negatively associated with owners’ anthropomorphic perception of cats.
Many cat owners describe the relationship with their cat in
anthropomorphic terms like child or best friend. Attributing such
human social roles to cats might influence the interpretation of cat
behavior and communicative cues. Over 1800 Dutch cat owners filled
out an online survey concerning the relationship with, and behavior
of, their own cat and beliefs about the emotional lives of cats in
general. Owners were also presented with seven photographs of cats
(four with reliable cues to identify an emotion and three neutral
ones).
52% of the respondents described the relationship with their cat in
human terms such as family member (52%), as a child (27%) or as best
friend (6%) while 14% described their cat as a pet animal.
Owners who described the relationship with their cat in human terms, more often a) assigned complex social emotions (such as jealousy and compassion) to cats and b) assigned emotions to neutral photographs.
Owners with a realistic perception of cat emotions were better at
correctly identifying the emotional photographs. Moreover, owners
that attributed complex social emotions to cats in general had a
higher tendency to attribute emotions to the neutral photographs.
Our study shows that the correct interpretation of feline emotional
cues from photographs are negatively associated with owners’
anthropomorphic perception of cats. This study highlights the
importance of educating owners about natural cat behavior and
realistic views of the emotional life of (their) cats.
Read the full paper here: Bouma, E.M,C., Reijgwart, M.L., Martens, P., Dijkstra, A. (2023). Cat owners’ anthropomorphic perceptions of feline emotions and interpretation of photographs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 2023, 106150, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2023.106150