If you live with a cat, you’ve likely spent years trying to keep a nagging thought at bay: this thing is probably just using you as some kind of big, dim-witted, easily manipulated servant. You’d probably try telling yourself that was the case, that it really does love you, but now, a study published in the journal Animal Behaviour comes along to confirm your darkest suspicions.
Researchers from the University of São Paulo think that cats have weaponized their meows, turning the sound into a means of bullying us into solving all of their problems.
The researchers gave 38 food-motivated cats a treat locked inside a clear plastic box with holes. The cats could smell the prize, but couldn’t breach the container with their paws. The team then observed how the animals reacted while completely alone vs. in the presence of a human.
Your Cat Might Be Manipulating You With Its Meows, According to a New Study
It was a blowout. A complete no contest. Cats were 16 times more likely to start screaming when a person was in the room, dropping a matinee 86 frantic meows at humans compared to a paltry 20 when left alone.
When they were alone, they didn’t waste breath yelling at no one. They just stared at the door, waiting for the human to walk back in. Even more telling is that while they were vocalizing at humans, the cats aggressively flashed their eyes back and forth between the box and the person, the internationally known cartoony representation of saying “Hey, open it for me, you idiot.”
Cats evolved a high-pitched, infant-like shriek over thousands of years specifically to torment us into doing things for them. The next time your cat meows at you, know it’s giving you a direct command to do something for it, and when you do, you are likely just making it feel like it owns you instead of the other way around.
What a life, am I right?
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