Cats have always been considered almost like real “people” of company, especially if they live together with them. And over the years, numerous studies have been conducted on these small and friendly friends of man.
And it is precisely one of the latest studies to analyse the behaviour of cats conducted byUniversity of Liverpool has given results that were not at all obvious, if cats were really of people, would most likely have psychopathic tendencies.
The study was conducted by interviewing several cat owners, then evaluating the level of psychopathy of their cats, following human psychological standards.
A total of 549 participants answered 46 questions about the behavior of their cats; questions such as if the animal “tortures” its prey rather than killing it immediately, if he argues with the neighbors' animals, if he is insensitive to punishments and reprimands from his owner, if he meows and vocalizes for no apparent reason.
Responses were documented on a five-point scale ranging from “It doesn't describe my cat" to "Describes my cat very well".
Subsequently, all the answers gave life to a tool to evaluate the psychopathy of your feline, the Cat Triarchic Plus,, based on the triarchic model of psychopathy used for humans based on three fundamental factors:
- audacity (low levels of fear, immunity to stress),
- disinhibition (reduction of behavioral restrictions, altered regulation of affects and impulses)
- pettiness (lack of empathy, aggression, insensitivity).
To these three factors, the factor of theaggression towards other animals and that ofaggression towards humans.
Finally, based on the responses collected from the tests, the result is that all cats have at least an element of psychopathy in their nature and the reason for this may be evolutionary.
Most likely these characteristics were essential for survival for their ancestors, for example useful for obtaining resources such as food, territory and mating opportunities.
However, cats are very empathetic animals, even if in their own way: anyone who lives with a cat at home will be able to tell you that they are capable of showing affection, love and care, but expressing themselves in different ways and with different intensities.
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