A new study shows that cats aren’t as nice as you think.
Are you worried about how your cat acts?
Does the little fur ball sometimes attack you from a high shelf for no reason? Do you sometimes wonder if what your cat is doing is normal?
Are you ever scared of your cat?
Does your cat like to stare at you and get the zoomies at night?
What do scientists say?
Most cat owners think it’s normal, but a new study by researchers at the University and Liverpool John Moores University says that it could mean you live with a psychopath cat.
The signs that a cat is a psychopath
A group of experts from the UK made a survey for cat owners to find out if their “fur babies” might have the traits of cat psychopathy.
A poll of 549 cat owners found that
A total of 549 cat owners were asked to fill out the poll. First, they looked at the “triarchic” traits, which measure boldness, meanness, and lack of control to find out if a person is psychotic.
Friendliness is important
But two more things were also of interest: how unfriendly they were to people and pets. So, the test was called the CAT-Tri+ or the Cat Triarchic Plus test.
A 46 question test
The test has a total of 46 questions about how your pet cat acts, and many of them are typical of our favorite felines.
Too much meowing, running around, and more
In the study that the team released, they asked pet owners questions like, “My cat makes loud noises (like meows and yowls) for no apparent reason,” “My cat runs around the house for no apparent reason,” and “My cat doesn’t seem to act guilty after doing something wrong.”
Study finds that all cats are evil in some way.
Most of the questions seem to be about normal cat behavior, and the study has found that all cats have some amount of psychopathy. The reason is simple: evolution.
“The fittest will win”
The Journal of Research in Personality says, “In an ancestral environment that required self-sufficiency, wild cats with higher levels of psychopathic traits may have been more successful at getting resources (food, territory, and mating opportunities).”
A long line of evil people
So the cats we have as pets today come from a long line of cats who were psychopathic because that was the only way to live.
Cat values
So don’t worry, even if your cat is a monster, he probably doesn’t want to eat you. Your pet friend only wants to be in charge of the house, eat your food, and find a good mate.
The idea for the study came from the differences in cats’ personalities.
Rebecca Evans, one of the researchers who helped put together the study, talked to Vice’s Motherboard about why they decided to look into the strange topic of psychopathy in cats. Evans said, “Our cats and how different they are from each other made us want to do this research.”
How does that change your relationship with the owners?
Evans then said, “Personally, I’m also interested in how how an owner thinks their cat is psychotic can affect their relationship with their cat. My cat, Gumball, does pretty well on the disinhibition scale, which means he can be loud, want to be close to people, and get excited.
Investigating our animal friends
Vice’s Motherboard also talked to one of the study’s other authors. Minna Lyons said that after studying psychopathy in humans, rodents, and primates, the writers, who all love cats, “decided to join forces and see if psychopathy is also important in our feline friends.”
Psychopaths may be bold cats.
Lyons said that her cat Axel, who took part in the study, has some of the traits of a feline psychopath: “Axel is very brave. He has been known to go into the homes, cars, and garages of his neighbors to look for food.”
We need to do more study.
But it should be said that more study needs to be done to really show that cats are psychopaths. The questions in the study are pretty general, like “My cat wants attention” or “My cat doesn’t follow the rules.” These are pretty typical habits for cats.
By these rules, both dogs and people could be called psychopaths.
If we asked some of the same questions about our dogs or even ourselves, we might all be psychopaths, according to the study.
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