There are social gestures – raised tail, rubbing against legs – and what is known as displacing behavior – scratching, shaking.
A new study has shown that cats "talk" to their male owners more often than to their female owners. According to researchers, this may be related to the fact that men generally show less attention to their pets. The work of scientists from Ankara University was based on video recordings made by 31 cat owners. Participants were asked to behave as naturally as possible when they returned home and to record the animals' reactions.
As The New York Times reports, men, on average, heard 4.3 sounds from their cats – meows, purrs, or chirps – during the first 100 seconds after entering. Women, on the other hand, received only about 1.8 sounds. This difference was significant and did not depend on the age, gender, or breed of the pet.
The scientists examined 22 types of behavior, including yawning (often associated with stress) and feeding-related gestures (such as pointing to the bowl). However, only vocalization was found to be related to the owner's gender. Two groups of reactions were most commonly observed: social gestures – raised tail, rubbing against legs – and what is known as displacing behavior – scratching, shaking the body. The researchers believe this indicates a wide range of signals that cats use when interacting with their owner. At the same time, vocalization almost never coincided with other types of reactions, suggesting that cats' "conversations" are an independent element of communication and are not necessarily related, for example, to hunger or boredom.
Although the authors did not draw deep conclusions about the reasons, they noted that women generally pay more attention to cats' emotions, more often respond to their signals, and often imitate cat sounds themselves – perhaps that is why animals need less additional vocalization. Even despite the small sample size and the fact that the study was conducted in one country, the use of video recordings makes the results more reliable compared to studies that rely solely on owners' reports.
These data complement existing knowledge about how cats use their sounds to attract attention, express emotions, or demonstrate dissatisfaction. And they hint that cats may be more attentive to our feelings than is commonly thought.
