Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T05:18:48.806Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Humans can identify cats’ affective states from subtle facial expressions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

LC Dawson ,
J Cheal ,
L Niel  and
G Mason
LC Dawson
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Rd E, Guelph, ON, Canada
J Cheal
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Rd E, Guelph, ON, Canada
L Niel*
Affiliation:
Department of Population Medicine, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Rd E, Guelph, ON, Canada
G Mason*
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Rd E, Guelph, ON, Canada
*
* Contact for correspondence: [email protected]/[email protected]
* Contact for correspondence: [email protected]/[email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Although cats’ popularity as pets rivals that of dogs, cats are little studied, and people's abilities to read this apparently ‘inscrutable’ species have attracted negligible research. To determine whether people can identify feline emotions from cats’ faces, participants (n = 6,329) each viewed 20 video clips of cats in carefully operationalised positively (n =10) or negatively valenced states (n = 10) (cross-factored with low and high activity levels). Obvious cues (eg open mouths or fully retracted ears) were eliminated. Participants’ average scores were low (11.85/20 correct), but overall above chance; furthermore, 13% of participants were individually significantly successful at identifying the valence of cats’ states (scoring ≥ 15/20 correct). Women were more successful at this task than men, and younger participants more successful than older, as were participants with professional feline (eg veterinary) experience. In contrast, personal contact with cats (eg pet-owning) had little effect. Cats in positive states were most likely to be correctly identified, particularly if active rather than inactive. People can thus infer cats’ affective states from subtle aspects of their facial expressions (although most find this challenging); and some individuals are very good at doing so. Understanding where such abilities come from, and precisely how cats’ expressions change with affective state, could potentially help pet owners, animal care staff and veterinarians optimise feline care and welfare.

Keywords

affective statesanimal careanimal welfarecatsemotional statesfacial expressions
Type
Articles
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , November 2019 , pp. 519 - 531
Copyright
© 2019 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

References

Ahola, MK, Vapalahti, K and Lohi, H 2017 Early weaning increases aggression and stereotypic behaviour in cats. Scientific Reports 7: e10412. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-11173-5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Aldis, O 1975 Play Fighting. Academic Press: New York, USAGoogle Scholar
American Pet Products Association 2018 2017-2018 PPA National Pet Owners Survey. American Pet Products Association: Stamford, USA. http://www.americanpetproducts.org/pubs_survey.aspGoogle Scholar
Arahori, M, Kuroshima, H, Hori, Y, Takagi, S, Chijiiwa, H and Fujita, K 2017 Owners’ view of their pets’ emotions, intellect, and mutual relationship: Cats and dogs compared. Behavioural Processes 141: 316–321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2017.02.007CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Aronson, LR and Cooper, ML 1967 Penile spines of the domes-tic cat: Their endocrine-behavior relations. The Anatomical Record 157: 71–78. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.1091570111CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Babchuk, WA, Hames, RB and Thompson, RA 1985 Sex dif-ferences in the recognition of infant facial expressions of emotion: the primary caretaker hypothesis. Ethology & Sociobiology 6: 89–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/0162-3095(85)90002-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bavelas, JB, Black, A, Lemery, CR and Mullett, J 1986 “I show how I feel”: motor mimicry as a communicative act. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 117: 497–529Google Scholar
Belin, P, Fecteau, S, Charest, I, Nicastro, N, Hauser, MD and Armony, JL 2008 Human cerebral response to animal affective vocalisations. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 275: 473–481. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2007.1460Google Scholar
Bennett, V, Gourkow, N and Mills, D 2017 Facial correlates of emotional behaviour in the domestic cat (Felis catus). Behavioural Processes 141: 342–250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2017.03.011CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berridge, KC 2000 Measuring hedonic impact in animals and infants: microstructure of affective taste reactivity patterns. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 24: 173–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0149-7634(99)00072-XCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Biernacki, P and Waldorf, D 1981 Snowball sampling: problems and techniques of chain referral sampling. Sociological Methods & Research 10: 141–163. https://doi.org/10.1177/004912418101000205CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, T and Friedman, H 2013 Classifying dogs’ (Canis famil-iaris) facial expressions from photographs. Behavioural Processes 96: 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2013.02.010CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borod, JC, Haywood, CS and Koff, E 1997 Neuropsychological aspects of facial asymmetry during emotional expression: A review of the normal adult literature. Neuropsychology Reviews 7:41–60. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02876972CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bradshaw, J 2013 More than a feline: the true nature of cats. New Scientist. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg 21929341-000-more-than-a-feline-the-true-nature-of-cats/Google Scholar
Buckland, EL, Volk, HA, Burn, CC and Abeyesinghe, SM 2014 Owner perceptions of companion dog expressions of positive emotional states and the contexts in which they occur. Animal Welfare 23: 287–296. https://doi.org/10.7120/09627286.23.3.287CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron-Beaumont, CL 1997 Visual and tactile communication in the domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus) and undomesticated small felids. PhD Thesis, University of Southampton, Southampton, UKGoogle Scholar
Chambers, CT and Mogil, JS 2015 Ontogeny and phylogeny of facial expression of pain. Pain 156: 798–799. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000000133CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Core, S, Widowski, T, Mason, G and Miller, S 2009 Eye white percentage as a predictor of temperament in beef cattle. Journal of Animal Science 87: 2168–2174. https://doi.org/10.2527/jas.2008-1554CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Darwin, C 1998 The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Second Edition. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UKGoogle Scholar
Delgado, MM, Munero, JD and Reevy, GM 2012 Human per-ceptions of coat colour as an indicator of domestic cat personal-ity. Anthrozoös 25: 427–440. https://doi.org/10.2752/175303712X13479798785779CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demirbas, YS, Ozturk, H, Emre, B, Kockaya, M, Ozvardar, T and Scott, A 2016 Adults’ ability to interpret canine body lan-guage during a dog-child interaction. Anthrozoös 29: 581–596. https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2016.1228750CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Descovich, KA, Wathan, J, Leach, MC, Buchanan-Smith, HM, Flecknell, P, Farningham, D and Vick, SJ 2017 Facial expression: an under-utilized tool for the assessment of welfare in mammals. Altex 34: 409–429. https://doi.org/10.14573/altex.1607161Google Scholar
Dohoo, I, Martin, W and Stryhn, H 2003 Veterinary Epidemiological Research, Second Edition. VER Inc: Charlottetown, CanadaGoogle Scholar
Ekman, P 1992 An argument for basic emotions. Cognition & Emotion 6: 169–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699939208411068CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ekman, P and Cordaro, D 2011 What is meant by calling emotions basic? Emotion Review 3: 364–370. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073911410740CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, SLH, Swindell, V and Burman, OHP 2015 Human classi-fication of context-related vocalizations emitted by familiar and unfamiliar domestic cats: an exploratory study. Anthrozoös 28:625–634. https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2015.1070005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
European Pet Food Industry Organization 2016 The European Pet Food Industry Federation Facts & Figures 2016. European Pet Food Industry Organization: Brussels, Belgium. http://www.stray-afp.org/nl/wpcontent/uploads/2012/08/facts_and_figures_2010.pdfGoogle Scholar
Faragó, T, Takács, N, Miklósi, Á and Pongrácz, P 2017 Dog growls express various contextual and affective content for human listeners. Royal Society Open Science 4: e17013. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170134CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fernández-Carriba, S, Loeches, A, Morcillo, A and Hopkins, WD 2002 Functional asymmetry of emotions in primates: new findings in chimpanzees. Brain Research Bulletin 57: 561–564. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0361-9230(01)00685-2CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Flint, HE, Coe, JB, Pearl, DL, Serpell, JA and Niel, L 2018 Effect of training for dog fear identification on dog owner ratings of fear in familiar and unfamiliar dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 208: 66–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2018.08.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gourkow, N, LaVoy, A, Dean, GA and Phillips, CJC 2014 Associations of behaviour with secretory immunoglobulin A and cortisol in domestic cats during their first week in an animal shel-ter. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 150: 55–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2013.11.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanson, M, Jojola, SM, Rawson, NE, Crowe, M and Laska, M 2016 Facial expressions and other behavioural responses to pleas-ant and unpleasant tastes in cats (Felis silvestris catus). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 181: 129–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2016.05.031CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, BL and Hart, LA 2014 Normal and problematic reproductive behaviour in the domestic cat. In: Turner, DC and Bateson, P (ed) The Domestic Cat: The Biology of its Behaviour pp 27–36. Cambridge University: Cambridge, UK. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9 781139177177.005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hauser, MC 1993 Right hemisphere dominance in the production of facial expression in monkeys. Science 261: 475–477. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.8332914CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holden, E, Calvo, G, Collins, M, Bell, A, Reid, J and Scott, EM 2014 Evaluation of facial expression in acute pain in cats. Journal of Small Animal Practice 55: 615–621. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsap.12283CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hook-Costigan, MA and Rogers, LJ 1998 Lateralised use of the mouth in production of vocalizations by marmosets. Neuropsychologia 36: 1265–1273. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0028-3932(98)00037-2CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobs, JA, Pearl, DL, Coe, JB, Widowski, TM and Niel, L 2017 Ability of owners to identify resource guarding behaviour in the domestic dog. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 188: 77–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2016.12.012CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, TP, Garrity, TF and Stallones, L 1992 Psychometric evaluation of the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS). Anthrozoös 5: 160–175. https://doi.org/10.2752/089279392787011395CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, SS and Raag, T 1989 Smile production in older infants: the importance of a social recipient for the facial signal. Child Development 60: 811–818. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1989.tb03512.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaminski, J, Hynds, J, Morris, P and Waller, BM 2017 Human attention affects facial expressions in domestic dogs. Scientific Reports 7: e12914. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-12781-xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kessler, MR and Turner, DC 1997 Stress and adaptation of cats (Felis silvestris catus) housed singly, in pairs and in groups in boarding cateries. Animal Welfare 6: 243–254Google Scholar
Kraut, RE and Johnson, RE 1979 Social and emotional messages of smiling: an ethological approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37: 1539–1553. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.37.9.1539CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kroodsma, DE, Byers, BE, Goodale, E, Johnson, S and Liu, WC 2001 Pseudoreplication in playback experiments, revisited a decade later. Animal Behavior 5: 1029–1033. https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.2000.1676CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kujala, MV, Somppi, S, Jokela, M, Vainio, O and Parkkonen, L 2017 Human empathy, personality and experience affect the emotion ratings of dog and human facial expressions. PLoS One 12: e0170730. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0170730CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Langford, DJ, Bailey, AL, Chanda, ML, Clarke, SE, Drummond, TE, Echols, S, Glick, S, Ingrao, J, Klassen-Ross, T, Lacroix-Fralish, ML, Matsumiya, L, Sorge, RE, Sotocinal, SG, Tabaka, JM, Wong, D, van den Maagdenberg, AMJM, Ferrari, MD, Craig, KD and Mogil, JS 2010 Coding of facial expressions of pain in the laboratory mouse. Nature Methods 7:447–452. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.1455CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, DH, Mirza, R, Flanagan, JG and Anderson, AK 2014 Optical origins of opposing facial expression actions. Psychological Science 25: 745–752. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613514451CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leyhausen, P 1979 Cat Behaviour: The Predatory and Social Behaviour of Domestic and Wild Cats. Garland STPM Press: New York, USAGoogle Scholar
Maréchal, L, Levy, X, Meints, K and Majolo, B 2017 Experience-based human perception of facial expressions in Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus). Peer Journal 5: e3413. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3413CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marshall, C 2014 Cat videos on YouTube: 2 million uploads, 25 bil-lion views. ReelSO. http://www.reelseo.com/2-million-cat-videos-youtube/Google Scholar
Martens, P, Enders-Slegers, MJ and Walker, JK 2016 The emotional lives of companion animals: Attachment and subjective claims by owners of cats and dogs. Anthrozoös 29: 73–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2015.1075299CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mathews, K, Kronen, PW, Lascelles, D, Nolan, A, Robertson, S, Steagall, PVM, Wright, B and Yamashita, K 2014 Guidelines for recognition, assessment and treatment of pain. Journal of Small Animal Practice 55: e10–e68. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsap.12200CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McKone, E, Kanwisher, N and Duchaine, BC 2007 Can generic expertise explain special processing for faces? Trends in Cognitive Sciences 11: 8–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. tics.2006.11.002CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Myrick, JG 2015 Emotion regulation, procrastination, and watching cat videos online: Who watches Internet cats, why, and to what effect? Computers in Human Behavior 52: 168–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.06.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagasawa, M, Kawai, E, Mogi, K and Kikusui, T 2013 Dogs show left facial lateralization upon reunion with their owners. Behavioural Processes 98: 112–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2013.05.012CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nicastro, N and Owren, MJ 2003 Classification of domestic cat (Felis catus) vocalizations by naïve and experienced human listen-ers. Journal of Comparative Psychology 117: 44–52. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7036.117.1.44CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pongrácz P, Molnár C, Dóka A and Miklósi Á 2011 Do chil-dren understand man's best friend? Classification of dog barks by pre-adolescents and adults. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 135:95–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2011.09.005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabin, BM and Hunt, WA 1992 Relationship between vomiting and taste aversion learning in the ferret: studies with ionizing radi-ation, lithium chloride, and amphetamine. Behavioural Neural Biology 58: 83–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/0163-1047(92)90291-BCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodan, I, Sundahl, E, Carney, H, Gagnon, A-C, Heath, S, Landsberg, G, Seksel, K and Yin, S 2011 AAFP and ISFM feline-friendly handling guidelines. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery 13: 364–375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfms.2011.03.012CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rolls, ET 2007 Emotion Explained. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UKGoogle Scholar
Russell, JA 2003 Core affect and the psychological construction of emotion. Psychology Reviews 110: 145–172. https://doi.org/10.1037//0033-295X.110.1.145CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scheumann, M, Hasting, AS, Kotz, SA and Zimmermann, E 2014 The voice of emotion across species: how do human listen-ers recognize animals’ affective states? PLoS One 9: e91192. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0091192CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schirmer, A, Seow, CS and Penney, TB 2013 Humans process dog and human facial affect in similar ways. PLoS One 8: e74591. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0074591CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shreve, KRV and Udell, MA 2015 What's inside your cat's head? A review of cat (Felis silvestris catus) cognition research past, present and future. Animal Cognition 18: 1195–1206. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-015-0897-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tami, G and Gallagher, A 2009 Description of the behaviour of domestic dog (Canis familiaris) by experienced and inexperienced people. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 120: 159–169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2009.06.009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, AM, Reby, D and McComb, K 2009 Context-related variation in the vocal growling behaviour of the domestic dog (Canis familiaris). Ethology 115: 905–915. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.2009.01681.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thayer, JF and Johnsen, BH 2000 Sex differences in judgment of facial affect: A multivariate analysis of recognition errors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 41: 243–246. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9450.00193CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Udell, MAR and Shreve, KRV 2017 Editorial: Feline behaviour and cognition. Behavioural Processes 141: 259–260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2017.04.005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voith, VL 1985 Attachment of people to companion animals. Veterinary Clinics of North America Small Animal Practice 15: 289–295. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0195-5616(85)50301-0CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vuilleumier, P and Pourtois, G 2007 Distributed and interactive brain mechanisms during emotion face perception: evidence from functional neuroimaging. Neuropsychologia 45: 174–194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.06.003CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walker, M, Díez-León, M and Mason, G 2014 Animal welfare science: Recent publication trends and future research priorities. Internal Journal of Comparative Psychology 27: 80–100Google Scholar
Wan, M, Bolger, N and Champagne, FA 2012 Human perception of fear in dogs varies according to experience with dogs. PLoS One 7: e51775. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0051775CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Dawson et al. supplementary material
Download undefined(File)
File 149.4 KB