Is Your Cat a Psychopath? Probably, Researchers Say

[Javaman]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/93ba9v/is-your-cat-a-psychopath-quiz-survey

(there is a test in the article)

One of our cats is sitting directly behind me as I type this, screaming at the back of my head for reasons that only he knows. When he’s bored with that, he’ll stalk our other cat like prey while she tries to use the litter box. He regularly makes guests uncomfortable with prolonged, almost alien eye contact. He is undoubtedly a demon, but according to the findings in a recently published study, he may also meet the description of a cat psychopath.

A team of researchers at the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University in the UK devised a survey for cat owners to find out if the hellions living with them fit the bill for cat psychopathy. They wrote a survey that includes questions like ”My cat vocalises loudly (e.g. meows, yowls) for no apparent reason,” “My cat runs around the house for no apparent reason,” and “My cat does not appear to act guilty after misbehaving.” The researchers published the survey for cat owners to take online, here.

The researchers used the answers to these questions given by 549 cat owners who completed the survey to create a new criteria for psychopathy in cats. They started with the “triarchic” concept of psychopathy, where levels of boldness, meanness, and disinhibition have been used to measure psychopathy in humans. These three traits also emerged as factors that lead toward a psychopathic cat, the researchers wrote, but two more factors also arose: human-unfriendliness and pet-unfriendliness. They named this new method of measuring psychopathic cats the Cat Triarchic Plus (CAT-Tri+).

“Our cats and the differences in their personalities inspired us to start this research,” Rebecca Evans, one of the researchers on the study, told Motherboard. “Personally, I am also interested in how owner perceptions of psychopathy in their cat can affect the cat-owner relationship. My cat (Gumball) scores relatively highly on the disinhibition scale—which means he can be quite vocal, proximity-seeking and excitable!”

more at link...

[DBoon]

1. I am anxiously awaiting the follow up article:

"Is Your Dog Lazy?"

[dixiechiken1]

6. *snort* 😏

[hlthe2b]

2. A veterinary neurologist once told me he spent six weeks teaching his residents how to recognize

the broad range of "normal" in dog behaviors before turning the focus to neurological abnormalities.

I asked him how long he spent on the cat normal behavior and he replied "less than a day... there are no normals."

He was only partially kidding, I think.

[Demovictory9]

3. Lol...my cat does the yowling for no reason

[yellowdogintexas]

10. two of ours do that...they are our 19 yr old boys.

our others a rather quiet

[Haggard Celine]

4. When I first got my cat, about 10 months ago,

he was kind of naughty. He would go places I didn't want him to go and wouldn't listen to me when I told him no.

He was about 9 months old when I first got him from a couple in a neighboring town. They had to get rid of him because their daughter was allergic to him. He hid under the bed for the first two days after I got him. Wouldn't touch any food or do anything else. But then he realized, after he was starving, I'm sure, that this was his new home, so he started acting more normally.

Anyway, he would run around the house really fast sometimes and he would pounce all over the place, even on me. I finally had enough of it one night, and I made him go outside and I left him out there. I was pissed. The next day I heard him meowing out there, so I opened the door and he came in.

Things were better for a while after that. He behaved and listened to me. But then one night he started acting up again, so I told him he had to go outside. He did, came back the next day, and everything was fine.

Now he walks over to the door and starts sniffing and listening sometimes, and I know he wants out, so I let him. He must be able to handle himself out there. I hear a cat fight occasionally, but I never see him with any scars. Sometimes he stays out for a couple of days. When he does, I leave some food in his outside bowl. He comes back when he's ready.

Now he's very well-behaved and he listens and is nice to people who come over. I guess he needs to be able to run around and hunt like a cat is supposed to do. But he loves to get in my lap and get me to pet him. I guess we both learned to adjust to each other.

[viva la]

5. My little kitten (5 months) releases toxic gas at me frequently

The vet website said this is a sign of love.

Yeah. A psychopathic love.

[yellowdogintexas]

11. kittens grow out of the noxious gas

but boy do they ever fart when they are little.

[viva la]

13. I hope she grows out of it.

She kind of walks around in a haze of fart.

[Wolf Frankula]

7. Are Researchers Goofuses?

We're waiting for the results.

Wolf

[TomSlick]

8. I am convinced that the cats that live in our house - no one would call them "our cats" -

are demons in cat form. They are simply allowing us to feed and clean up after them until a witch shows up needing a familiar.

[applegrove]

9. My cats are nice and purr when I hold or kiss them when food is

not in the offering. My cats have always been that way. Not a psychopath in the lot.

[yellowdogintexas]

12. we have one that may be psychotic - she won't let anyone touch her

in fact we named her Elliot Ness because she is so untouchable (we thought she was male at the time, now her name is Ellie)

She has always been antisocial - she was part of a foster litter and could not be socialized enough to where she would be adoptable. Her sisters were gone in a month

So she won't let US touch her but she is madly in love with one of the old guys and snuggles up with him at every opportunity. Any day she lets one of us within a foot of her without giving us the stinkeye and moving away is a success story