Study Suggests Cats Meow Harder and Louder to Get Male Attention
Women use baby-talk to to engage and interact with their feline friends. Men, not so much... and cats are fed up!
Dogs are pretty easy to read. They’re happy, sad, frightened, or excited. Sometimes angry, but typically pretty chill. Cats are, quite literally, a very different beast when it comes to identifying their mood and over the years, many studies have been conducted to better understand how to read them. In particular, how the mysterious feline communicates her wants, desires, and expectations to not only other animals, but more importantly, humans.
For many of us who share space with a cat, we’ve come to read our puss’s individual chatty behavior and non-verbal cues – meowing while nudging her bowl/our elbow, or while looking at the back door, or heading toward the treat cupboard – and we respond accordingly. But this is more nurture than nature. Meaning it’s specific to your pet and the living arrangement she’s become accustomed to, versus instinctive and reflective of how the general cat population might communicate those same needs.
Years back, research was conducted out of Sweden’s Lund University that looked into whether your cat’s mood impacted its vocalizations and if felines could verbally convey urgency, joy, contentment, or distress to their pet parent. Then, some studies examined whether speaking in a high-pitched voice (also known as baby talk) affected how cats tend to react to humans. With that one, the short answer was yes. They love it and are definitely more responsive when spoken to in this manner.
So, there’s been lots of interest – both past and present – as to how to read a feline’s verbal communication style.
And that leads to rather fun, pretty interesting results from a recent pilot study conducted by students in the Physiology, Psychology, and Veterinary departments of the University of Ankara, Turkey. Published in the online journal of behavioral biology, ethology, their findings uncovered another layer as to how our furry feline friend connects: they vocalize significantly more when greeting a male caregiver versus a female caregiver.
Now, the keyword here is “greeting” because according to the research team, “Greeting behavior is a key component of social behavior in animals, which serves a variety of purposes such as conveying intent and adjusting social relationships by reducing tension and reinforcing social bonds.” So, that initial interaction is pretty significant for any animal.
But why would a cat become louder and chattier with a male versus a female caregiver? That, the team believes, is down to the female engaging in greater verbal interaction (remember the findings related to baby talk) and her tendency to be better skilled at responding to the cat’s own chatter. With men, it seems the cat feels the need to become louder and use more frequent and directed vocalizations to attract and direct attention. Hmmm…
Sharing space with three seriously judgy Schnoodles and 2 felines who prefers to be left alone. #LivingMyBestLife
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