A new study suggests people misinterpret their cats’ moods often, but offers an easy fix.
A group of researchers from Paris Nanterre University split participants into three groups: one that was shown soundless video and images of cats, a second group that heard audio-only recordings of feline vocalizations, and a third group that had the benefit of video and sound.
Participants from the first two groups misinterpreted feline moods as much as 28 percent of the time, the study found, but people who had the benefit of seeing and hearing cats correctly identified their mental state almost 92 percent of the time.
The study also yielded another insight: people are much better at accurately assessing positive moods than they are at spotting an upset or antagonistic cat.
The findings indicate we’re better off giving our cats our full attention than, say, jumping to conclusions about what they want based solely on their vocalizations or the position of their tails. It seems obvious, but how many of us have our eyes on a screen or we’re multitasking when our cats want our attention?
Of 630 people who participated in the research, 166 were professionals in animal-related fields like veterinary medicine and animal behaviorism, while the rest were lay people. There was a major gender imbalance among participants, with 574 women, 51 men and five people who didn’t identify with either gender.
It’s not clear how such an imbalance might skew the results, and it would be nice to see follow-up research evenly split between women and men.
Pain In The Bud 
I’ve read similar reports that found people did better at identifying their OWN cat’s moods than some random cat.
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I think I remember something about that about a year ago, or maybe I’m confusing it with the study that found cats respond to their caretakers’ voices while mostly ignoring strange voices.
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Hmm. Interesting article. So if my cat is soundly sleeping next to me and i touch his bum and his tail swishes back and forth i should stop or i get what i deserve? 😾I need to find another hobby if i cannot sleep through the nigh.
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Oh. And the only vocal from my cat is when i say, What do you want? He meows everytime i say that 🤣Obvious he wants more wet food.
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once again thanks for the important info. It is very helpful
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Hi Big Bud and Little Buddy! Spunkmeyer here! Just trying to use mind control on dad! Saw a movie from hmmmm. It said 1951! Or something like that! They used mind control! But it hasn’t worked on dad yet… I don’t get it! In the movie the human’s eyes went blank and they did whatever the alien wanted! I will keep trying and let you know! Signing off!!! (Think weird music here… It may help…) Spunkmeyer P.S. Sorry I got off subject but that was a really good movie and I think they may have something there! I will keep trying!
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