Science Reveals Cats Are Pickup Artists

Ladies, you may think you’re the boss in your relationship with your cat. But your beloved bet is actually a slick pickup artist, manipulating you into giving him what he wants. According to Discovery News, a new study shows what Fluffy has in common with Mystery:

Cats love the ladies.

“[…] cats approach female owners more frequently, and initiate contact more frequently (such as jumping on laps) than they do with male owners,” co-author Manuela Wedl of the University of Vienna told Discovery News, adding that “female owners have more intense relationships with their cats than do male owners.”

They play it cool.

cats in these relationships only [have] to use subtle cues, such as a single upright tail move, to signal desire for friendly contact.

They will make you buy them dinner.

“Food is often used as a token of affection, and the ways that cats and humans relate to food are similar in nature to the interactions seen between the human caregiver and the pre-verbal infant,” co-author Jon Day, a Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition researcher, told Discovery News. “Both cat and human infant are, at least in part, in control of when and what they are fed!”

They engage in power games.

The researchers determined that cats and their owners strongly influenced each other, such that they were each often controlling the other’s behaviors.

One difference between cats and pickup artists, though, is that you can have a happy, loving relationship with your kitty:

“A relationship between a cat and a human can involve mutual attraction, personality compatibility, ease of interaction, play, affection and social support,” co-author Dorothy Gracey of the University of Vienna explained. “A human and a cat can mutually develop complex ritualized interactions that show substantial mutual understanding of each other’s inclinations and preferences.”

But watch out — you know cats are masters of the neg.

Cats Adore, Manipulate Women [Discovery News, via CBS]

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