Do you always feel that your cat is not right? Be careful...it may be mentally ill

Key Points

★ From a human psychology perspective, all cats may have some degree of psychopathology, but this is actually their evolutionary instinct.

★ About 38% of stray cats in the UK are abandoned because of their bad temper. When adopting a cat, we must be mentally prepared to get along with it.

When you carefully examine the cats at home, you will find that they always have a dark history of one kind or another: bullying other pets in the home, playing with captured prey without any guilt; often deliberately pushing things on the table and breaking them, and then walking away leisurely.

This human cub must be my new pet. | Tenor

Losing temper at any time, destroying furniture without warning... Do you think this is describing a "psychopath"? Have you ever wondered why your cat always loves to destroy things and always behaves in a way that drives you crazy? Researchers say: Your cat may really be mentally ill!

01

"Psychopathy"? It's actually the result of evolution

In humans, people with antisocial personality disorder generally lack empathy and tend to manipulate others, even though they may appear normal and charming on the surface. The same may be true for cats. The researchers say it is likely that all cats have some degree of psychopathy because it once helped their ancestors gain resources, such as food, territory and mating opportunities.

From an evolutionary perspective, cat "psychopathy" is the product of stress in the evolutionary process, which, through a complex interaction of environmental and genetic factors, leads individuals to pursue a manipulative and predatory life.

If evolution didn't force us to do this, who wouldn't want to be a good cat? | GIPHY

In a natural environment full of dangers, cats' primary concern is to find ways to survive (for example, attacking, fighting for territory, and being good at planning). Although these behaviors are consistent with the concept of mental illness judged by humans, for them they are the instincts of survival, reproduction, and hunting.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the Bronx Zoo in New York compared domestic cats to some big cats and found that our felines share many personality traits with lions.

Lions and cats are both predators, and their personalities are actually very similar. | Tenor

Some biologists also believe that if all humans disappear one day, most animals on Earth that are closely related to humans (such as pets such as dogs) may quickly become extinct in the next few months. But cats have the ability to survive tenaciously. These attributes of theirs, which we consider to be "psychopathic" traits, allow them to become one of the best predators in nature.

02

Although cats are "cold-blooded", they are cute!

Since the emotional indifference of cat owners is obvious, why do humans choose cats as pets? Perhaps it is because cats just touch the "cuteness" switch of humans.

"Cuteness" is actually a set of special and powerful physical characteristics. There is a technical term for this characteristic, called "compassion triggering traits." The core element of "compassion triggering traits" is that it must be like a human baby.

Although other small animals are also cute, none of them can combine all the "baby-like" elements like cats.

Does a sleepy kitten look like a baby? | GIPHY

The average cat weighs 4 kilograms, and holding a cat feels almost the same as holding a newborn human being; the cat's meow can remind people of the cry of a child; cats have short jaws, sweet round faces, and small noses, which inadvertently make them more likable to us humans.

The physique, voice, and facial appearance of a cat are very similar to those of a human baby, but that's not enough. Cats also have a pair of eyes that can "charm" humans. Cats' eyes are very large. Adult cats' eyes are about the same size as humans'. Big eyes look particularly bright on a small face. The key is that cats' eyes are located in the same position as humans, in the middle of the front of the head, making people feel closer.

Round face, big eyes, small nose, short chin, even fatter! | Tuchong Creative

This is all the result of evolution. Cats are carnivores, and they have evolved short and powerful jaws to tear food apart. They rely on vision rather than smell to hunt, so they have evolved big eyes and small noses. As ambush hunters, they need the field of vision of both eyes to overlap highly, so cats' eyes are located in the middle of the front of their heads.

The cold-blooded and ruthless "cat people" rely on their looks to a large extent to turn you into a "cat slave" who will serve you at their beck and call.

03

If you want to get closer to your cat, you must first learn to respect it

Even though cats are good at eating with their faces, they are natural hunters after all, and their inherent aggression is sometimes hard to accept. According to a survey, in the UK, about 38% of stray cats are abandoned by their owners because of their bad temperaments, and many people even euthanize their own disobedient cats.

Abandoned stray cats have wilder eyes. | Tuchong Creative

As a "cat owner", how can we get along better with cats? Cat training expert Molly DeVos said, "My job is to adjust the breeding environment and the owner's behavior so that cats can naturally express their animal nature." In other words, as an owner, you need to carefully interpret the behavioral code of your pet.

The most important thing is to respect the independence of cats. Scientists have found that cats are very independent and opinionated animals. They prefer to be active rather than passive. Studies have found that the more you actively tease it and approach it enthusiastically, the shorter the time it will play with you. If you respect the independence of cats, you will get along well with it. If it occasionally likes to play with others, don't rush to get jealous. It's not that it doesn't have you in its heart, it just likes the feeling of independence.

Sometimes, it might just be about helping you take a funny video. | GIPHY

Cats' "psychopathy" is just their nature, not a mental illness. As long as you find a unique way to get along with them, let these little guys continue to accompany us, rub your arms from time to time, and lick our faces, it will be worth it even if you are a "cat shoveler" for a lifetime.

Author: Tang Yicheng Su Yi Beijing China Science and Technology Mental Health Promotion Center

Review | Fan Chunlei Associate Researcher, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Editor | Jiang Fan

Editor | Ding Zong

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