It's no secret that we love cats. The Internet has been responsible for evidencing it in recent years, but our adoration for these little cats dates back thousands of years. However, unlike dogs, cats are not very good at showing their feelings.
It is then that, like disgusted adolescents, cat lovers ask ourselves the same question: "will it ever really matter to us?" It took a long time, but finally science has focused on the important things and has looked for ways to answer this question and end our anguish.
Smile, your cat is watching you
At the University of Oklahoma, Moriah Galvan and Jennifer Vonk studied the reactions of 12 cats to different gestures of their owners. The result was unanimous: when they saw their owners smile, the cats showed much more positive behavior.
They purred, rubbed against them and even sat on her lap. In short, they showed more interest in interacting with their owners when they said they were happy than when they said they were angry. When tested with strangers, however, the mood of these people did not affect their behavior too much.
The results led the experts to an unequivocal conclusion: Cats know how to interpret human gestures and it is something they learn over time. Of course, we do not know if this should make us happy (after all, it seems we do care!) Or worry a little: it could be another stage of his plan to enslave us.
Of dogs and cats
These findings can be a new argument for the eternal debate of cats vs. dogs. On the one hand, it has long been known that dogs are capable of interpreting our feelings, but now we know that cats are also.
The difference lies in how they react: the behavior change of the dogs is much more obvious. When faced with an angry person they tend to make an effort to ignore it. Cats, on the other hand, only show milder changes in their behavior and body language. This difference may be due to the fact that the dogs have been domesticated for a longer time and, therefore, have had more time to adapt to our emotions.
Of course, do not think that means that your cat understands you and cares about your well-being. One of the theories to explain the changes of behavior of the felines before our smiles is that, when we are happy, we are more prone to give likes to our pets. Cats, then, simply understand that a smile means they are more likely to get what they want and stay nearby just in case.
So, what do you think? Do you think that your cat really understands you or simply takes advantage of your good mood?