There's one commonly known difference between cats and dogs, and that's how they behave towards their owners and strangers.
According to an article published in The Conversation, many believe that dogs are loving and aggressively loyal, while cats are said to be "aloof and indifferent."
In general, cat cognition research proposes cats do develop emotional ties with their human owners. More so, they appear to suffer from separation anxiety, are more responsive to the voices of their owners compared to strangers, and they seek reassurance from their owner during scary circumstances.
However, a study conducted by researchers in Japan has complicated this common illustration of humans' relationship with cats.
'Helper' Trials vs 'Non-Helper' Trials
Applying an approach formerly used to study dogs, the researchers discovered that unlike dogs, cats actually do not avoid strangers who decline offering help to their owners.
In the said research, a cat was watching as her owner attempted to open a box "to get at something inside." A pair of strangers then sat on each side of the cat's owner and the latter tend to one of them to seek help.
During "helper" trials, the stranger provided the owner some help opening the box. Meanwhile, in "non-helper" trials, the stranger declined. The other stranger was just passively sitting and not doing anything.
Both strangers then, offered the cat a treat and the researchers observed to find out which of them was first approached by the cat.
If the cat preferred to take food from a helper over the non-helper, it would specify a "positive bias" that showed helpful interaction made the said animal feel more warmly towards a stranger.
However, if she preferred to resist taking food from a non-helper, this negativity bias could mean the cat was feeling distrustful.
When the same approach was applied to test dogs, they exhibited a "clear negativity bias." The dogs opted not to take food from a stranger who was not helpful to their owner.
On the contrary, the cats in the said Japan-conducted study, were totally indifferent. They exhibited no partiality for the helper. They did not avoid the non-helper, either. Seemingly, as far as cats are concerned, the researchers found that "food is food."
Social Indications
An alluring conclusion for this study would be that cats are self-centered and they could not care less how their human owners are treated.
Even though this might suit with the common preconceptions about cats, it is an instance of the so-called anthropomorphic bias.
It engages interpretation of cats' behavior, as if they "were furry little human beings," instead of creatures that have their own unique ways of thinking.
To understand cats further, there is a need to get out of this, human-centric mindset and consider them as cats. And when this is done, what appears most likely is not that cats in this research were self-centered.
Rather, they were not able to "pick up on the social interpretation between the humans." They were not mindful that some of the strangers were not being helpful.
Furthermore, even though cats can pick up on some social indications of humans, they can follow human pointing and are sensitive to emotions of humans. More so, perhaps, they are less tuned in to people's social relationships than dogs are.
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