Is it true that cats know all about your feelings?

If you spend a lot of time on the Internet, you know, at least one thing: we all love cats very much. But that's what they think of us - this is a mystery. Compared with betrayed dogs, cats seem to be very indifferent to human affairs.

But it turns out that our cats pay more attention to us than we think. It seems they are able to say when we are happy.

In new studies, it has been possible to obtain evidence that cats are sensitive to human emotions and gestures.

Can cats feel human emotions?

Scientists from the University of Oakland in Rochester, Michigan, studied 12 cats and their owners. They found that cats had a different behavior when their host was smiling, compared to when he frowned.

When the cats faced the owner's smile, they showed more positive behavior: purring, asking for hands. It was also obvious that the cats tried to spend more time with the owner when he was smiling, but not frowning.

The picture was completely different when the cats were left with strangers, and not with their owners. They behaved equally positively, regardless of whether the person was frowning or smiling.

These results indicate that cats can understand the facial expression of a person, and they develop this ability for a long time.

The fact that dogs can clearly distinguish the facial expression of a person has been known for a long time. But for the first time evidence has been obtained that cats have the same abilities.

Prior to this, only one study was conducted to find out whether cats are able to perceive a person's emotions. It was published in January 2015, and its results were mixed. However, scientists now argue that cats are much more in harmony with human emotions than everyone has thought so far.

Do they understand our gestures?

However, this does not mean that cats are able to show sympathy. They just learned to associate the smile of their owner with the reward. Nevertheless, even if cats do not really understand human emotions, they can disassemble the nuances of our gestures. It also suggests something more fundamental: they are interested in us.

People are wondering whether cats really understand us and pay attention to their owners. Research scientists show that they can not be completely indifferent.

Perhaps the intelligence of cats is so difficult to detect, because their reaction to us is very ambiguous. If purring and rubbing are obviously positive actions, it was also discovered that when cats are happy, their body, ears and tail move in a certain way.

In contrast, scientists have known for several years that dogs react differently to happy and angry people. Their reactions are more obvious. A study conducted in 2011 showed that dogs will actively avoid an angry person, and not just change the language of their body.

The difference between the emotions of dogs and cats can be explained by their history

The dogs were domesticated a very long time ago. Genetic studies conducted in 2015 suggest that this process began 30,000 years ago. Unlike dogs, domestic cats first appeared about 10 thousand years ago, presumably in the Middle East.

Strong communication between the dog and the man and the reaction of the dogs to our emotions could appear only because we had more time to adapt.

However, it is still too early to draw conclusions.

Cats can be the most popular pets, but we still know very little about them. Scientists still can not explain why they purr. However, the latest research has taken the first step towards restoring the reputation of cats. It turns out that they are not indifferent to us. Perhaps just do not show your love as clearly as dogs.