As evidenced by internet-famous cats like Grumpy Cat and broccoli-hating Smudge, our cultural stereotype of cats is that they are often aggressive, standoffish or, well, grumpy.
Now a new study suggests that grumpy cat behavior, and especially those with grumpy faces, is linked to an accident of human breeding. Indeed, as humans educate our pet cats to be cuter and more attractive to their human companions, such facial changes can affect their ability to communicate with each other.
“Our research suggests that our preferences for appearance in animals may go beyond the mere ‘cute’ and also include animals that display painful features on their faces,” said Lauren R. Finka, a postdoctoral fellow at Nottingham Trent University. who co-wrote the newspaper, told Salon by email. In other words, your cats’ standard cute expression is perhaps more of an expression of pain to them.
In the article in question, Finka and her co-authors note that domestic cats are one of the many animals whose appearance has been altered by humans due to artificial selection. Some cats have brachycephalic faces (such as Persian and exotic short hair), which means they are flatter and rounder and can lead to health issues such as breathing problems. Others have dolichocephalic faces (like Siamese), which means they are considered longer than average, or mesocephalic faces (like domestic short-haired cats), which means their heads have medium proportions.
The researchers studied cats of different facial types and concluded that while someone who analyzes a cat’s face could distinguish between facial expressions that indicate ‘pain’ or ‘no pain’ when looking at domestic shorthair cats, humans could not recognize ‘pain’. expressions in the neutral faces of other races, even those with similar facial structures as each other. The scientists also wrote that neutral expressions on the average cat’s face that are extremely flat and round ‘indicate greater painful features’ compared to those whose faces have medium proportions or are longer than average. Scottish wrinkled cats, for example, had faces that indicated they were in pain, even when their expressions were neutral; and several cat breeds with longer faces, including the Devon Rex cats, also had neutral faces that ‘indicate a greater absence of painful features, compared to the neutral landmarks of various other breeds’.
As Finka wrote to Salon, these findings have important implications for people who love their cats and whose cats have faces that appear to be in pain.
“What this means for our pets is that these animals will eventually get more attention from us than they would prefer, because their appearance motivates us to want to pay attention to them,” Finka explained. “Similarly, we can also miss them if they may be in pain, because we may not be able to see the difference from their normal appearance. It also means that we can prefer and even encourage the existence of breeds that occur frequently. to serious health problems and may struggle to express themselves clearly. ‘
Finka also explained why people tend to be attracted to animals with characteristics that remind them of children.
“We know that people tend to find animals with more ‘infantile’ appearance (eg a relatively large head and a round face, a high forehead and large, low-lying eyes) more attractive and attractive,” Finka explained. These types of cat faces “suit our instincts for feeding, which is potentially very beneficial for human newborns who are vulnerable and need a lot of care. These traits are more common in flatter cats. However, they are related to health and respiratory problems and possibly also the ability of these cats to communicate clearly. “
As for the evolutionary implications, Finka was direct: “When our animals (artificially) select a lot for certain traits that we find attractive, we limit their abilities to express themselves clearly using these features.”
In an article on her study for The Conversation, Finka pointed out that the implications of the study extend beyond cats.
“These issues are not likely to be limited to cats, as other domestic species, especially dogs, show similar types of selection for extreme functions,” Finka wrote.
Finka explained to Salon that her article did not test whether cats are limited in their ability to read each other’s pain, or perhaps think that other cats are in constant pain.
“This is not something we have tested, but it is logical to assume that other cats also struggle to communicate effectively with each other via their faces,” Finka wrote to Salon. “Overall, however, this area has undergone little scientific research, so we generally do not know much about how cats communicate with their faces. When it comes to the very brachycephalic breeds, it is more likely that it rather than other cats who think these cats are in pain may not be able to extract much useful information from their faces at all. ‘