The Psychology of People Who Love Cats

The Psychology of People Who Love Cats Everyone says cats don't care. They don't come when you call. They ignore you. And yet for a lot of people, a cat is the one who makes them feel most understood. This video follows one grey cat called Toast and the person he lives with, and looks at what the research says: what your cat hears that nobody else does, why the "ignore it" trick doesn't work, what it really means when a cat finally walks over to you, and whether loving cats makes you a "crazy cat lady". In this video: • Cats know their names (and why they still don't come) • Your silly cat voice is a private channel • Can you read your cat's face? Most people can't • Is your cat actually attached to you? Two labs, two answers • The "ignore it" trick, and the CAT rules from Battersea that actually work • What a pet does for your stress, and how your mood shapes your cat • The crazy cat lady stereotype vs. the data • 5 things to try, plus a bonus: cats know the names of their housemates Chapters: 0:00 Toaaast, I'm hooome 1:07 Your cat knows its name 2:17 Your silly cat voice 3:15 Can you read your cat? 4:51 Is your cat attached to you? 5:30 The 'ignore it' trick 6:25 The CAT rules 7:58 What a cat does for you 8:54 Your mood, your cat's mood 9:33 Crazy cat lady? 10:32 The answer 11:24 5 things to try 12:01 Bonus: cats know each other's names What's the silly voice you use for your cat? Tell us in the comments. Research mentioned: Saito, A., Shinozuka, K., Ito, Y., & Hasegawa, T. (2019). Domestic cats discriminate their names from other words. Scientific Reports, 9, 5394. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-40... de Mouzon, C., Gonthier, M., & Leboucher, G. (2023). Discrimination of cat-directed speech from human-directed speech in a population of indoor companion cats. Animal Cognition, 26(2), 611-619. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-022-01... Dawson, L. C., Cheal, J., Niel, L., & Mason, G. (2019). Humans can identify cats' affective states from subtle facial expressions. Animal Welfare, 28(4), 519-531. https://doi.org/10.7120/09627286.28.4... Prato-Previde, E., et al. (2020). What's in a meow? A study on human classification and interpretation of domestic cat vocalizations. Animals, 10(12), 2390. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10122390 Potter, A., & Mills, D. S. (2015). Domestic cats do not show signs of secure attachment to their owners. PLoS ONE, 10(9), e0135109. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.... Vitale, K. R., Behnke, A. C., & Udell, M. A. R. (2019). Attachment bonds between domestic cats and humans. Current Biology, 29(18), R864-R865. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.08... Vitale, K. R., & Udell, M. A. R. (2019). The quality of being sociable. Behavioural Processes, 158, 11-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2018... Haywood, C., Ripari, L., Puzzo, J., Foreman-Worsley, R., & Finka, L. R. (2021). Providing humans with practical, best practice handling guidelines during human-cat interactions. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 8, 714143. Zilcha-Mano, S., Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2012). Pets as safe havens and secure bases. Journal of Research in Personality, 46(5), 571-580. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2012.06... Finka, L. R., Ward, J., Farnworth, M. J., & Mills, D. S. (2019). Owner personality and the wellbeing of their cats share parallels with the parent-child relationship. PLoS ONE, 14(2), e0211862. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.... Parsons, C. E., LeBeau, R. T., Kringelbach, M. L., & Young, K. S. (2019). Pawsitively sad: Pet-owners are more sensitive to negative emotion in animal distress vocalizations. Royal Society Open Science, 6(8), 181555. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.181555 Takagi, S., et al. (2022). Cats learn the names of their friend cats in their daily lives. Scientific Reports, 12, 6155. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-10...