Cat lovers will feel a sense of relief when their feline friends are around. But how exactly do cats view their human’s emotions? More specifically, can cats tell when you’re sad, depressed, or anxious? How do cats respond to these feelings?
Dogs are known for being comforting people. They are known to be loyal and social companions, as well as wanting to please their fur parents. As a result, cats have been unfairly portrayed as being oblivious of human emotions. This is evident in the many memes that are available on the internet.
However, Studies have shown that cats are capable of recognizing human emotions and can alter their behavior based on what they perceive. Although cats’ emotional perception is not as common as dogs’, current research shows that they can sense emotions and respond in their own ways, which is good for their human companions.
Do cats know when you’re sad?
You might have wondered: Can cats sense sadness and other emotions?
Based on a study It was shown that cats can recognize human emotions by using visual and auditory observations.
They may see things from a different perspective. Cats are able sense sadness and associate it with the visual and audible signals of human sadness like frowning and a hushed voice. This is how they are addressed and treated when their human is in a sad mood.
Cats can be independent and not as social as dogs, but they do form close ties with their wild colony. When it comes to your home, you are considered as part of your cat’s colony so they recognize the importance of emotional signals in living harmoniously with you as their furparent.
Meanwhile, how do you know if your cat recognizes that you’re sad or they just want to be fed? Shadi Delshad, an animal behaviorist, says it helps to be more attentive to how your cat behaves over time. For example, if you notice your cat coming over whenever you’re feeling down, it’s likely that they know how your are feeling.
Can Cats Sense Depression?
It appears that cats are able to sense moods and emotions as well as depression. Cats are intuitive and observant, and can sense emotional cues from humans. When you feel depressed, cats can also sense it.
When their fur parents are feeling depressed, cats may be more likely to be near them. Some cats may purr and rub their faces more when they sense their human is feeling depressed. However, it all depends on the cat’s personality and how they respond to being depressed.
Can Cats sense Anxiety Attacks and Anxiety?
Research Evidence has shown that cats can sense anxiety, and even experience panic attacks. The study Animal Cognition revealed that cats look at their owners to get signals or what is called “Animal Cognition”. “social referencing”.
The study involved inviting a number cat-owner pairs to participate in a social experiment. The experiment consisted of bringing the cat-owner pairs into a room with fans with streamers attached. This was to add anxiety and uncertainty. Half of the people were instructed to talk to their cats in happy tones while also looking at the fan and cats.
The other half were instructed to talk to their cats in fearful tones. The results showed that 80% of cats looked at their owners before trying to decide how to behave towards the fan, regardless of whether they used a happy tone or a fearful tone. Many cats also based their behavior on their owners’ moods.
This study shows that cats respond functionally to their owner’s emotional stimuli when their owner showed “anger” or “anxiety”, and their stress levels were higher as compared to when they were shown “happiness”.
In the meantime, research Nottingham Trent University found that cats can detect when their owners are stressed or anxious. Apart from this, they can also mirror their human’s emotions and well-being.
Do Cats Make You Smile?
These results show how cats can detect and interpret emotional cues from their human and conspecific friends. Yes, cats do engage in social behavior and form an enduring bond with their humans, which is partly dependent on their human’s emotions.
The findings demonstrate that as cats became domesticated, they have developed cognitive and social skills in understanding humans’ emotions to be able to behave accordingly in response to their human’s cues in communication and expressing emotions.
Additionally, cats can sense the emotions and moods of their human owners and are very intuitive. Cats are more inclined to engage with their owners when they are sad, depressed, or anxious, and they will approach them more often if they are anxious, or agitated.
You may see them doing this in a variety of ways, but they can look at you, sit near you, rub their hands against your skin, or purr (which can calm you down and lower your blood pressure). Cats who have developed a bond with their owners are great therapy animals as they can calm and soothe their humans.
Summary
Cats need to understand their human emotions in order to maintain balance and a healthy relationship with their colony (towhich their fur parents belonged) and to strengthen the interspecies bond between them and their humans.
