Conventional wisdom may hold that your cat prefers to be alone, but a new study is here to debunk — err, declaw — that notion.
A small Oregon State University study of 50 cats arrived at a surprising conclusion: Your feline friend cares more about you than a number of other factors (even eating). The findings were published Friday in Behavioural Processes.
Researchers studied 25 pet cats and 25 shelter cats, and deprived them of four key factors for several hours: social interaction with people, food, scent and toys. Not all cats went through the full study because of nervous behavior, i.e. hiding and shaking.
Next, the cats were reintroduced to these four stimuli, and were given the option to interact with all of them, Mashable reports. And what did the researchers find? The No. 1 cat-favored activity was schmoozing with people, even at the expense of food.
“While it has been suggested that cat sociality exists on a continuum, perhaps skewed toward independency, we have found that 50% of cats tested preferred interaction with the social stimulus even though they had a direct choice between social interaction with a human and their other most preferred stimuli from the three other stimulus categories,” the study authors wrote.
“The finding that most cats in both pet and shelter populations prefer social interactions with humans, followed by food, may indicate that these stimuli may be a useful starting point when considering potential reinforcers (for cognitive/behavior testing or training) or enrichment items for cats,” the authors added.
So next time you think your cat would prefer to be left alone, you may want to try cuddling him instead.
7 Ways Pets Can Make You Healthier
8 Surprising Facts About Asthma and Seasonal Allergies
More from U.S. News
Is it Healthy to Sleep With Your Pets?
7 Ways Pets Can Make You Healthier
8 Surprising Facts About Asthma and Seasonal Allergies
Your Cat Cares About You More Than Eating, Study Says originally appeared on usnews.com
