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As evidenced by famous internet cats like Grumpy Cat and Smudge who hate broccoli, our cultural stereotype of cats is that they are often aggressive, aloof, or, well, cranky.
Now, a new study suggests that the cranky behavior of cats, and especially those with cranky faces, may be linked to a human breeding accident. Indeed, while humans bred our pet cats to look cuter and more attractive to their human companions, such facial changes may have affected their ability to communicate with each other.
“Our research suggests that our preferences for the appearance of animals may go beyond just ‘cute’ to also include animals that have painful features on their faces,” Lauren R. Finka, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Nottingham Trent, who co-authored the article, told Salon via email. In other words, your cats’ default cute expression is, for them, perhaps more of an expression of pain.
In the article in question, Finka and his co-authors observe that domestic cats are one of the many animals whose appearance has been altered by humans due to artificial selection. Some cats have brachycephalic faces (like Persians and exotic shorthair) which means they are flatter and rounder and can lead to health issues such as difficulty breathing. Others have dolichocephalic faces (like Siamese), which means they are considered longer than average, or mesocephalic faces (like domestic shorthair cats), which means their heads have average proportions.
The researchers studied cats with different face types and concluded that if someone analyzing a cat’s face would be able to distinguish between facial expressions indicating “pain” or “no pain” when looking at cats. Short-haired servants, people could not recognize the “pain” expressions in the neutral faces of other races, even those with facial structures similar to each other. Scientists also wrote that the neutral expressions on the average feline face which is unusually flat and round “suggested more painful features” compared to those whose faces are of average proportions or are longer than average. For example, Scottish fold cats had faces that indicated they were in pain even when their expressions were neutral; and several cat breeds with longer faces, including Devon Rex cats, also had neutral faces which “indicated a greater absence of painful features, compared to neutral landmarks of various other breeds.”
As Finka wrote to Salon, these findings have important implications for people who love their cats and whose cats have faces that seem to indicate they are in pain.
“What this means for our pets is that these animals may end up receiving more attention from us than they would like, because their appearance motivates us to want to care for them,” Finka explained. “Likewise, we may also miss the moment when they are actually in pain, as we may not be able to tell the difference from their usual appearance. It also means that we can continue to prefer – and even encourage – the existence of breeds also often suffer from serious health problems and may have difficulty expressing themselves clearly. “
Finka also explained why people tend to be drawn to animals with characteristics that remind them of children.
“We know that humans tend to find animals with more ‘infantile’ appearing characteristics (eg a relatively large head and round face, high forehead and large low eyes) cuter and more attractive,” Finka explained. These types of cat faces “tap into our instinct to nurture, which is potentially very beneficial for human newborns who are vulnerable and need a lot of care. These characteristics are more pronounced in cats to flatter face. However, they are associated with health problems and breathing difficulties and potentially also limit the ability of these cats to communicate clearly. “
In terms of evolutionary implications, Finka was blunt: “When we heavily (artificially) select animals for certain traits that we find attractive, we potentially limit their abilities to express themselves clearly using those traits.”
In an article on her study for The Conversation, Finka pointed out that the implications of the study extend beyond cats.
“These problems are unlikely to be limited to cats, given that other domesticated species, especially dogs, exhibit similar types of selection for extreme characteristics,” Finka wrote.
Finka explained to Salon that her article didn’t test whether cats are limited in their ability to read each other’s pain or if they think other cats are in constant pain.
“It’s not something we’ve tested, but it makes sense to assume that other cats would also have a hard time communicating effectively with each other through their faces,” Finka wrote to Salon. “However, in general, this area has been the subject of very little scientific research, so we generally don’t know a lot about how cats communicate with each other through their faces. very brachycephalic, it’s probably more likely that rather than other cats thinking these cats are in pain, they just might not be able to extract much useful information from their faces. “
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