Are cats emotionally unavailable?

Considering the massive number of photos and videos shared on the Internet, one thing we can be sure of is that a lot of people love cats. However, how cats feel about us is much less clear. Are cats emotionally unavailable?

Well, it looks like our feline companions pay more attention to us than we give them credit for. They seem to be able to tell when we are happy.

New research has found the first strong evidence that cats are sensitive to human emotional gestures. They found that the animals behaved differently when their owner was smiling compared to when they were frowning.

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When faced with a smiling owner, the cats were significantly more likely to perform “positive” behaviors such as purring, rubbing, or sitting on their owner’s lap. They also seemed to want to spend more time close to their owner when they were smiling than when the owner was frowning.

The pattern was completely different when the 12 cats were presented with strangers, instead of their owners. In this setup, they showed the same amount of positive behavior, regardless of whether the person was smiling or frowning.

The results suggest two things: cats can read human facial expressions, and they learn this ability over time. Cats are more in tune with human emotions than we thought and that they can pick up on surprisingly nuanced human gestures.

The study also suggests something more basic: Cats are interested in us.

Domestic cats first appeared around 10,000 years ago and we’re still figuring them out!

They may be our most popular pet but we still have to learn a lot about them! Like, why do cats purr?

As well as obviously “positive” actions like purring or rubbing, scientists noticed that the cats adopted certain body positions, and ear and tail movements, that are associated with contentedness.

RELATED: What is your cat trying to tell you?

It may have taken so long to discover cats’ emotional intelligence because their responses are rather subtle. But this study might help to repair cats’ reputation for being emotionally unavailable. It seems cats show their affection in their very own fashion.