Dogs may have stolen the Internet from cats, but cat memes endure – and many center on one theme: Cats are aloof jerks.
The primary ambassador of this notion, naturally, is Grumpy Cat. But cats of all sorts, these memes tell us, desire to be left alone with their coffee, or demand darkness, or prefer ankle attacks to head scratches.
Okay, maybe you know cats that fit the bill. But it is not the case that “cats skew toward independency”, in the words of a new study on cat social behavior.
In fact, researchers at Oregon State University found, many pet and shelter cats are pretty eager to interact with humans – particularly people who seek out kitty caresses.
“In both groups, we found [cats] spent significantly more time with people who were paying attention to them than people who were ignoring them,” said Kristyn R. Vitale, a postdoctoral scholar in animal behavior and the lead author of the paper, which was published in the journal Behavioral Processes.
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