Presentation: The Science Behind Cat Color, Personality Traits and Intelligence

Welcome everyone to the Karet Auditorium. I'm Michelle Jeffers. I'm the chief of community programs and partnerships at the library. Like all programs at the library, we do always start with a land acknowledgement. So I want to mention that we do recognize that this land is the unseated ancestral homeland of the Ramatu Shalon people. we benefit from living and working on their land and we want to pay our respects to the elders, relatives, and ancestors of this community. I think it's also worth noting with that land acknowledgement that while domesticated cats are not indigenous to the Americas, in indigenous traditions across North, Central, and South America, native wild cats are reverently woven into folklore as symbols of power, stealth, medicine, and cosmic balance. So, there is a reason for us to all be here today. All right. Again, I'm thrilled to welcome Dr. Carol Mayberry here. Um, I have to confess that when Dr. Mayberry approached us at the library by email saying she was going to be in California and wanted to do a CAT program, I did have to send the email to my co-workers and say, "Is this person punking me?" It's like, but um, like all librarians, they librarian that write up and said, "No, it's a real thing. Bring her out." So, we were so lucky that she asked and we were so lucky to be the place to host her. Let me just um give you a brief bio of hers and then I'll bring her out on stage and we'll start the program. Professor Mayberry has expertise in social cognition, personality and organizations, particularly aviation, pet attachment and research methods. She is at the um University of Maine at Farmington. Uh she leads the university's social psychology laboratory which has produced several students who have pursued graduate study and research positions. Carol and her students have presented papers and posters at a variety of institutions, including the New England Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the American Psychological Association. In her spare time, this is why we're all here. She collaborates with mentor library director Bryce Kundric. They have conducted numerous popular studies on cats for both scholarly and popular audiences. Most recently, they developed the first cat intelligence assessment and large-scale analysis of cat color and personality. So, that's why we're here tonight. Let me have you all offer a warm welcome to Dr. Mayberry. Thank you. Well, that was absolutely beautiful and I am just overwhelmed and I know we are here for our mutual love and respect for cats and so I just want to recognize that and just thank you so much for uh coming out. I also want to um uh just run through what uh I'll be talking for about um 35 minutes. Uh kind of a mini lecture on my research. Then we're going to turn it over to questions, but I do want to acknowledge that people are standing. Um if you have to leave, I will not be offended. Uh this will be taped. Uh so yeah, just thank you so much for this warm welcome. Thank you uh to Michelle for uh for checking with your colleagues to make sure that you weren't getting punked. if I if I hadn't got a response back, uh that it would have would have ended there and we wouldn't have this uh this dreamy uh time together. So, uh yeah, just a little bit um about our agenda tonight. When I'm in an audience, I kind of like to know how how long is this going to go, what um how many uh slides, uh that type of thing. So, I wanted to talk about the history of the main cat lab, which is only um about two years old. uh the current state we're in a really interesting moment in 2026 with the cat human bond. So I wanted to talk about a Harris poll that was recently done by actually one of my former students. Uh really wonderful poll that uh tells us kind of the unique place that we are at uh with the cat human bond. um our research. I'll run through our attachment differences by color. What we're noticing um uh trends that we're noticing and we have some really nice um uh thankfully we have a lot of enthusiasm. So we have um about uh 1,600 people cat human pairs in our personality assessment and about um 8,000 in our I intelligence assessments. We're going to talk about attachment differences we're seeing by color, personality differences we're seeing by color, the intelligence um assessment, um as well as a study that we're currently looking at um looking at, we're collecting data on this right now on um the human differences in understanding meows. Uh there's a a burgeoning area of of uh respected research in interspecies communication. Um, and so we're uh we're looking at that and we found some uh really interesting things related to that. So at that point I'll say thank you and uh and love to hear your questions. I think we'll have about 35 minutes for questions and talk about our future endeavors. Um but first of all I wanted to actually go back to the history of the um uh the main cat lab. 80% of my life is working as a uh human personality researcher. So um this is I'm I'm really new at this. Uh if you have cat behaviorist questions, I'll I'll do my best, but probably um you know, punt those to uh to the experts in that area. Um so 80% of my time I do research on uh my latest endeavor was looking at commercial pilots um and the flight deck and personality differences in terms of um making good decisions um on the flight deck. Uh my students have done research on emoji, cross-cultural differences in emoji uh research. Our most uh recent uh group work has been in the area of men's apologies uh to each other and what makes for a good apology. So uh when Bryce took my personality, my my co-author Bryce took my my personality uh uh course, it was all on the development of personality, how we all differ, the measurement of human personality. and he almost in a kind of a side conversation started talking about personality differences in animals and I didn't have a good answer for him and so that started a bunch of conversations which ended up in this um endeavor that uh the first personality assessment that we put out uh overnight um worldwide we had about 400 people respond and so we knew we were on to uh a lot of enthusiasm human enthusiasm related to this. So, where are we right now? You probably have detected that in 2026 there's something unique that seems to be happening. Kind of a new respect, I think, of personality um differences in our cats. Uh but a respect of the kind of um uh honoring this this really unique bond. Um and so this was a study that was done uh a survey that was done about uh two months ago by the Harris um the Harris folks. And a couple of things that I just wanted to uh point out to you. Uh we've increased the number of pets that we have just in the past two years. About 77% of households now have pets. Um 45% have a cat. And there are some uh subgroups that have that are more likely to have a cat. So LGBTQIA folks are more likely to have a cat. Uh families um that have uh uh children under 18 are more likely to have a cat as well. some of the other interesting findings and and um if you can tuck this in the back of your head, I'm I'm sure you're going to have some questions or comments on this kind of anthropological uh deep dive on what's going on with our perceptions of pets. Um so again, this is about 2,000 people, a representative, a goodsized sample. Um first of all, 55% of folks 18 to 45 report they've considered having pets rather than children. So really really interesting. I I I unfortunately don't have data on that um from in in like even two years ago or 10 years ago, but my sense is having been born in 1967, I don't think we would have found this in 1970 or 1985 or 1995. So I'm curious when we get to that point of of of back and forth um your your thoughts on why this is. 40% of the respondents said they'd rather have pets than kids. um and 39% that they actually out outpaced the people who were like I'll have both 39% or hope to have both or just kids 21%. So that I think is also noteworthy. Um and finally 49% said they'd rather skip they'd rather skip finding a romantic partner altogether and hang with their pet instead. Um, and of singles who are seeking mates, 78 said 78% said for potential mates, not treating pets as a family is a red flag. So, there you go. There you go. So, uh, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on this um, uh, when I'm when I'm done with my my kind of mini lecture here. Is it, uh, financial insecurity? Some of the Harris, um, poll, uh, follow-up questions indicated that. Is it the state of the world, a feeling a sense of precariousness? um is it the elevation of pets and cats greater respect of what they uh can provide for us and what we can provide for them. So why study cat personality? Um so I want to re recognize that cat personality assessment is in its infancy. I am doing it because of the scientific endeavor uh like the study of human personality. I think just the questions are worthwhile. uh when I uh talk to other folks about this, they're they're thinking of applications of this. So felineto feline compatibility when you're looking at bringing another uh feline into the household as well as environmental considerations, how we can prepare environments or make sure that this is the right cat for uh for the our our environment. But in many ways, and I think this is the only way I feel like Freud, uh this is the only thing I have in common um uh with him is aboutund uh 110 years ago, he was kind of also um uh kind of uh groping around in the dark of uh you know, how do I define personality? What what are some predictors of uh of personality development? So, for the next five minutes, uh we're going to transport you back to um uh to uh Oh, Tommy Lee Jones uh uh and and Pico Degato um uh I'm going to transport you back uh to to a college or to a college classroom to talk about the two main personality theories when it comes to humans. So, the first one, and this has been holding forth for about um probably about 70 years, is this idea of that we have a big five or the five factor personality theory. So every person in this beautifully uh condensed room if we can and every person is going to be absolutely different by this measurement. If we can get a sense of your openness, your conscientiousness, your extraversion, your agreeableness, and your neuroticism, high, medium, or low, we're going to have a good map of your personality. So openness, that's uh how curious a person is. my at at uh um uh 5:00 this morning, uh my daughter and I are are having a delightful uh visit to your beautiful city. The alarm went off and she's a high and openness to experience person. The alarm went off. I rolled back to bed. She got her paint brushes. She's a a fine artist and uh hiked the the Prescidio and painted a beautiful um uh uh picture of the your beautiful Golden Gate Bridge. That's someone who's high in openness to experience. someone who's lower in openness to experiences like uh okay I'm is more conventional um conscientiousness is one's degree of kind of being rulebound or uh dependable so some of us are high in that some of us are moderate some of us are low are more free spirits extraversion this is another of the big five uh some of us are high or the life of the party we extract great joy in being and energy and being with other people others of us are low in extraversion, extract great joy in being alone uh and being with our cat and and may have be uh be here tonight uh screwed up your courage and been like, "Okay, I've got to do this for the cats." Uh but I would much prefer to be uh uh to be um on my couch and it's going to take me a few days to uh to recover from that. So, there are folks who are uh lower in in extraversion. The fourth one, agreeableness. Some of us are high in agreeableness. Uh then then we've got the Tommy Lee Jones out there. Um who I I don't know a lot about uh this actor, but he seems more kind of tacitern and kind of uh kind of has a gruff uh gruff demeanor. So uh leowness uh low in agreeableness. And then neuroticism. Uh there are those of us who are high who are kind of uh um uh uh easily uh upset and then there are uh folks who are very emotionally stable. So that's the um dominant theory right now for describing personality in humans. And we're going to apply that to uh to cats in just a little bit or we're attempting to apply that to cats. The other predominant theory right now in human personality is attachment theory that started in the 50s and then was uh really brought to fruition in 1970 by Ainsworth and Bell. And the these folks had this perspect perspective and this is really holding forth right now in personality still in 2026 that if we assess how that early parent child um attachment um the quality of that that that predicts a lot of uh behavior later on in life attitudes toward other people attitudes toward uh relationships not perfectly but it's a pretty strong predictor. there are things that interrupt that um things that you know peer experiences, trauma experiences or wonderful experiences um that can interrupt our attachment uh our attachment style. But this perspective too is a pretty um uh pretty pervasive um very much taught in every personality theory um uh uh uh classroom. And so the way that the equality of attachment is assessed is the strange situation procedure. And this is still done in 2026. It's done in San Francisco. It's done all all over the place. Uh and basically what happens is folks bring in their 12 to 14month-old into a laboratory that looks a lot like a playroom or a a living room with a one-way mirror. Um typically it's mother uh but it's primary caregiver. So I'm just using mother as a uh shorthand. And so they bring mother and child into this laboratory pretty benign environment. Um and then they um introduce a laboratory assistant who is a benign usually female stranger. Uh and they kind of look at what is happening for about 30 minutes. They look at what happens when the mother leaves for a few m moments which is stressful for a child but it's an everyday stress. It's not taxing the child too much. So they watch what happens when the mother leaves what the when the mother returns. And they're looking for a few different things. They're looking for separation protest. how much the child's um protests when mother leaves and securely attached kids protest. Uh anxiously attached kids protest, avoidantly attached kids do not protest. It's they seemingly aren't bothered. Um we look at physiological indicators and they are bothered but they appear to not be bothered. Then they look at how much um anxiety the child seems to be having with the stranger as well as reunion behavior. How easily is the child soothed in those circumstances. So, the reason I'm going through this is we're getting to the cats in about two minutes. Um, is that over and over again, um, cross-culturally, we find this. We find this, um, you know, in the 1970s, in 2026, that about 60% of, uh, um, toddlers are securely attached. And they look at proximity maintenance, how much they see the mom as safe haven, um, how much distress that, uh, the child has. About 20% are avoidantly attached. As I previously mentioned, they seem almost unbothered when mom leaves and they also treat the the stranger who comes in kind of uh with distance. And then 15% are anxiously attached. They're extremely clingy and also cling to the stranger um in a in really um uh unique and and predictable ways. So now we're at the cats. Um so Vitali um and I'm and I'm so grateful uh for these folks in Oregon who did this research. They wondered, "Are we going to see the same thing with cats? If we put them through the separation, uh, you know, uh, uh, distress uh, if we actually put them through the, um, the strange situation, what would happen?" And to their delight and astonishment and all of our, um, all right, you're on to something. Um, recognition, they found that 20% of the cats were avoidantly attached. Um, and here's an example um, a picture of an avoidantly attached cat. Um, so they avoided proximity with uh with their owner when they came into this and it's kind of stressful. It's almost like going to the vet or something. But they um avoided um their owner and then we had um or they had 15% almost identical to the human attachment were anxiously attached. They sought proximity in this stressful type of environment. And then they had 60% who explored and returned. So we were really and it's almost like a rubber band. You know, those of uh those who have had um uh observations of children probably remember this. Right around 12 to 14 months is when a lot of kids are kind of freaked out when mother leaves or when um parent leaves and you know they have to be with a babysitter or whatnot. Um and so uh this was really fascinating that this was uh something that they found and then Bryce and I decided to ask about attachment and we found also almost identical percentages. So, um, uh, when we did our original assessment, we asked people, if your cat could talk, which of the following would best describe your cat's attachment style? And 64% said, um, endorse this one. I, who find it relatively easy to get close to others, and I'm comfortable depending on them and having them depend on me. I don't often worry about, um, abandonment. And then 14.4% were anxiously attached. I find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like. I often worry that my person doesn't really love me or won't want to stay with me. So, the clingy cat and then avoidantly attached 21% 21.5%. Um, I'm somewhat uncomfortable being close to go others. I find it difficult to trust them completely. I difficult to allow myself to trust them. So this was really exciting because we were finding both with um Vitali with observations with that intervention as well as self-report of uh human companions we were finding these similar um uh uh uh percentages. So then we decided to look at um coat color and here's where things got very uh very interesting. We we found that um does anybody have a tortoise shell um in here? Okay. So, uh, your mileage may vary, and I should say at the beginning, YM, um, your mileage may vary. I have many folks when I tell them about, hey, we're finding these trends, and and I believe them, who will say, my orange cat isn't dull, it's super smart, or my tor is has never met a person that isn't going to be their friend. Um, but tossis were um really unusual in that about a third of them were avoidantly attached. So, that's much higher than the baseline. Um we also see only 50% are securely attached. Compare that with the top um the orange cats right there at the top. Um so 67% u that's much higher than our average of 64% or Vitali's um average of 60%. So uh we'll come back to this uh slide if people are um curious about this. But we did see these uh these differences. But then we got to the people uh the the human companions as I call them. Some some folks call them owners. I I sometimes call them owners, but uh human companions of cats. We wanted to assess their attachment as well toward their cats. So, we asked human companions to measure their own um human uh cat attachment to their to their um uh to their their their sweet uh their sweet kitty. And uh we used a um it was inspired by many items with his permission, Phil Shaver, who's very well known uh in California um and beyond worldwide on his attachment research. He does have a pet attachment assessment. So, we used some of those and we added a couple of items of our own. So, we asked people on a scale of 1 to seven, one strongly disagree to seven strongly agree. Um, a bunch of questions like, "My cat understands me. Um, my cat and I have a special relationship. I have many photographs of my cat on my phone." And we found uh we were delighted and intrigued to find um some gender identity differences. So men again your mileage may vary uh were the lowest in attachment significantly at least statistically if we look at this it's only you know a point or two so I don't think really it means uh means a whole lot and we had a lot of men who were highly attached to their uh and a lot of women and non-binary folks who were not um um particularly attached but these were averages we were seeing um average statistically significant averages so men 27.6 6 women 28.18 and non-binary and we had a nice um sample 116 and so we were uh we were psyched about that 29.5 and those were statistically significant differences. So I'm curious uh when we get to Q&A what you think about that um personality and trait differences by color and this is my daughter uh or her catalifer uh is my daughter here uh somewhere. Oh, there we are. Okay. Um awesome. So uh so Calcifer um is is right there. This was our original study. We asked that attachment question. We asked um about um uh the cat's personality. We asked their coat color. And then we wanted to say, is there anything else you'd like to tell us? And we're still going going through that data. There are some beautiful, beautiful stories about cats there, as well as demographics, including um uh sexual orientation and gender identity. So, let's see. There we go. Uh so, there's Pico Dato again. So our object objectives were to compare cats big five by coat color as well as to evaluate attachment distribution of cats that uh self-report um idea. And so for I'm going to go through the big five extraversion. We found that oranges were h just um way ahead of the pack. And there's again uh a very uh a very sweet guy. Um and so and we feel good about this. We have 193 in this uh at oranges in this study. And to uh those those folks who have to significantly lower in extraversion. So those were introverted uh introverted cats. How many orange cat um uh folks in here? Folks who have orange cats. All right. Uh so I have I have uh two orange cats at home and a and a tabby. Uh and because orang is I I did not put my thumb on the scale. I was just really um I think maybe originally really interested in this because of there are so many um kind of myths out there about orange cats and black cats and and tories etc. Agreeableness here again we see the torsis on the low end of the scale. Um and there's uh there's lovely Luna uh up there. These are actual cats in our studies. Uh and orange is very high in uh in agreeableness. um neuroticism. We have the and and uh the the reason I have Charmander up there uh that that is one of our respondents, one of the the folks who responded to our questionnaire and then they had the the nicest biography. It was like Char Charmander is just a bundle of nerves, but gosh, we just love Charmander. I just love that duality of, you know, my cat's pretty weird, but I just love him or her. Uh, so yeah, so toss are are very high. Um, uh, oranges and ragdolls way uh, down are much more emotionally stable. And the ones in the middle, not all of these are statistically significant differences. So the folks in the middle, the uh the the or the colors in the middle um aren't necessarily significant from each other, but the ones on the very ends, the highs and the lows, those are the ones where we typically are seeing statistical differences. Um openness uh level of curiosity, Siamese were actually the highest um in openness and curiosity and ragdolls were anybody have a ragd doll in here? Uh oh. Okay, got one or two. Um so ragdolls are are are lower in curiosity. Uh and then conscientiousness and this is my my cat Steele. Um uh paid actor. Uh yeah, Siamese were considered uh the most conscientiousness conscientious uh ragd dolls the least. And I think this is probably if I were presenting this to um and there may be some psychologist research psychologists here. This is probably the one that is the most um uh it is a very human. you know, how rule abiding is your cat? You know, does your cat, you know, run red lights? It's it's it's probably a little dicey to be making those extrapolations um to cats. I think it fits uh fits uh humans a bit better, but we do have, you know, we do have cats out there that are that are kind of going off and uh doing their own thing. Um and then finally, intelligence differences by color. And this is Felix. Uh the folks at Philly Jenkins Rescue um had contacted me. I have a couple of their uh cats in here that are available for adoption. That's little Felix there. Uh the way we came up with our IQ test, which is again live and um uh if you uh we're actually getting a lot of uh hits on that in the past two days. Um it's a 10 item questionnaire that is assessing your cat's memory, associative learning, attention, physical grace. Not sure if that's uh that's exactly um intelligence, but it seems like the less physically graceful uh cats uh at least in uh in Tik Toks and stuff are are considered uh uh with a lower IQ, but um I would love to hear people's feedback on on our different items. Um spontaneous associations. Has your cat made some spontaneous associations that are surprising and and and and um and quickwitted uh communication as well as emotional intelligence? When we were about 2,000 cats into this collection, which we're at about 7,000 now, um Bryce asked me, he said, "Are we seeing any sex differences?" And I said, "I don't think we asked the the sex of the cat." And so at that point, we started adding uh people's um uh what sex is your cat? And within about 400, we realized, wow, we have a sex difference here. We have females are about a point higher uh than male cats. And that has persisted. that I just ran this uh like two or three days ago when we were at 6,790 cats. Um so it's not in terms of practicality, it's less than a point, but it is a statistically uh significant uh difference. So ragdolls and oranges, they've been in a horse race for the bottom of uh the IQ test uh for for so the ragdolls a couple weeks ago the ragdolls were were out uh um out out pacing in low IQ. I don't know how to put it that uh uh the the oranges and the oranges just uh just uh took the lead as the lowest IQ. Uh the highest uh were Bengals, mainun, Siamese, and tuxedo cats. Um and then here we have the uh intelligence uh by uh uh by color. Uh so oranges and ragdolls, we see them uh pretty significantly lower than uh than the the Siamese, the main and the Bengals. But uh here's where it's interesting. We're putting things together with the IQ and uh the personality that we're starting to get some interesting um uh uh uh differences. And these are actual cats. They're uh in our study. Uh so we have uh like a typical rag doll right now. I I tested this about uh uh two days ago and it was 45.19. The oranges were 45. and and we feel good about these statistically uh these numbers about we have about a thousand uh oranges and about uh 123 ragdolls. Um but when we put that IQ and that uh personality uh together um we have you know this interesting kind of different type of lower IQ. Uh so prefer relaxation over problem solving. uh just unbothered uh versus the orange is like the chaotic energy, enthusiastic but errorprone. So I I think hopefully this will be again your mileage may vary. You may be like I have the chillest orange cat and I do actually do have an orange cat that's pretty uh Mary is pretty darn chill. We'll see a picture of him in a minute. Um, but these are trends that we're seeing and your mileage may vary, but I think it's going to be telling us something interesting as we collect more data. Um, as we hear and and and put together um our future uh studies, I think it's going to be telling us something different about uh about cats. Finally, um our ability to decipher meows and this is really difficult. Um has anyone taken that assessment in here? Um so, okay, a couple of people have taken it is very very difficult. If you get a zero on it, a lot of people get a zero. And I think it's difficult um because it's auditory only. Um and typically we have a lot of cues, you know, when we are like, okay, is it we have um uh you know, contextual cues, visual cues, you know, the you know, when they're next to their food bowl, um you know, that's cluing us in uh to what they're trying to say. So, it's auditory only. Um, still we're seeing some people are getting tens on this and we're also seeing a sex difference, a human sex difference with that. So, they there are 14 different meows that people listen to and try to pick uh what the um what the right answer is there. And there's my Mary and also Gracie who's available for adoption um from Philly Jenkins. So, people listen to these 14 meows and try to identify what the um correct meow is. Uh so, men's mean was an average of 5.1. uh women uh 6.0 and we're also having something called the uh uh the grand uh the grand game master cat parent effect uh where we're seeing a slight positive correlation between the number of cats that people have had. Those folks are doing better at this really difficult uh test. So um oh this is awesome 632. So I have about two more minutes and then love to hear your questions. So some final thoughts. Uh, I think that cats, like human children, deserve homes that respect their uniqueness and seek to meet them where they are. When I was a all my my uh lovely children are are in their 20s now, but as a new parent, I I I think I found the most comfort and I gravitated to the parenting manuals that talked about um, you know, looking at this as an emerging human on rather than kind of how do you want make this or that or you know, a recipe type of approach. Um, and I think like cat, like uh humans, cats deserve homes that respect their uniqueness, meet them where they are, appreciate uh whether it's chaotic energy or unbothered uh that there is beauty uh in that and there's uh there's something that's almost spiritual between uh cats and humans when we have that uh that attitude and approach. A few years ago, I remember hearing this lovely quote uh my cat's a weird little guy and that's okay. Uh and I I I if if I leave you with any um uh sermonet, it would be that um you know to to appreciate their their uniqueness and and and and that that is being okay. Um, I also think that science is catching up with um, human companions that that have already taken cat personality differences seriously, respectfully, are curious about them, are um, have point counterpoint, you know, wow, I've just gotten my second orange and such a different cat than my previous orange. So, I think uh, I hope that more psychologists start and uh, and social scientists start uh, doing this type of research. uh some trends that I think may be happening. Uh cat of the month. Uh we have a cat of the month for the past few years at my house. Um so just like employee of the month. I'll show you an example in just a second. Uh this uh jokingly we started this uh in an endeavor to uh facilitate better cat behavior. It did not work that way. Uh so I actually read about this um in uh on Reddit or something where a husband and wife they had one cat and they had uh one of them started a cat of the month. Uh he was always that cat. Uh let's see. But we've thought about uh we just have um uh Bryce and I have uh introduced or or brought aboard a wonderful biologist from Radbood uh University in the Netherlands. She's doing our her internship with us and she knows so much about um genetics and she's like you've got to come up with better ways of of c categorizing um coat color and and breed. And so she has done a deep dive. She's going to do a YouTube for us on this. Uh, and we've talked about how cool it would be that if people put in their information, and we provided cat passports identifying not only your coat color, but pattern and genealogy, the parentage, country of origin, uh, to establish maybe some some cool um, cross-pollination across our countries. Um, as well as having communities of orange tabies and vans and and things like that. I also, uh, want to recognize a duality of this interesting idea of cat's impressive power. I teach at a a small liberal arts uh the public liberal arts college of Maine. About 50% of our students are first generation students. And there are some just harrowing stories that I've heard over the years of of of their backgrounds. Just amazing that they they've made it uh made made it to college. And one of my students um a few years ago, we were having a conversation in class and she had been emancipated at a very tender age. I I think like a 15 or 16, just super and and I was asking you, you know, what was this um you know, what was this like? you know, how did you, you know, survive this? And she said, "My cat raised me." And I I took that I said, "Do you mean that?" And she said, "I I took that seriously and respectfully. It's worrisome that someone would feel that, you know, had that a family unit failed them, that the state failed them, that so many things failed them, that they felt such an affinity. But I also want to respect the degree of um sincerity with which that was her lived experience that this cat was so crucial um to her uh to her experience. Um author Caleb Carr u wrote a really interesting book um I think my little monster I think is what it's called and he talked about how his cat um Masha saved him that he was had a harrowing um horrific childhood. Um he he had affinity for cats throughout his childhood. Um and Masha, this cat who kind of came into his life as an adult. He still felt um just you know um the result of these uh harrowing experiences and it talks about this beautiful relationship he developed with this cat. And he said um at one point in the book, if we accept that Masha had these intellectual and emotional capabilities, was incredibly empathetic, we must accept that all cats have the capacity for them to greater or lesser extents exactly like humans. So I I again hear this as kind of a a clarion call to take this idea uh seriously. Um at the same time as a psychologist I want to think about to consider uh first of all the importance of cats the psychological buffer a repair mechanism of uh predictable non-heurtful loving relationship. Uh at the same time I think about the psychological vulnerabilities that might be part of that as well. Um so replacement of human relationships, expectations beyond what a feline or a canine uh can provide u maybe expanding worrisomely um human avoidance or as well as grief considerations when um the that cat is so uh is so central. So these are again just as almost in an anthropological way I'd like us to to think about those things and consider them um as as part of the whole um aspect of this. Uh so this is Mary a recent uh cat of the month. Uh so this is the type of thing that you could put on there. So it's bestowed for being as a distinguished gentleman and a little potato boy. Uh jumps onto beds with a very satisfying thump and his peacekeeping efforts uh with with his brothers. Uh so I want to thank Michelle Jeffers for saying yes uh to this. I want to thank um my beloved best friend uh Jill Cwley who is here uh tonight. I I went to UC Davis. That's what brought me uh originally to um uh to your beautiful, beautiful state. Uh I want to thank my daughter uh Jill's daughter Nina for being here. Uh my co-author Bryce Kundik for also asking the question, why hasn't anyone done uh research on personality and cats as well as Eileen Vanderland um our lovely uh intern, our main cat lab intern who's bringing new seriousness and new biology to our uh research. So I will leave it at that. take a sip of my water and I'd love to hear your questions. >> Thank you so much, Carol. Wonderful talk. >> Hey, thank you so much for your very interesting talk. You touched on it a little bit like when you're doing traits by color, some of the colors are actually breeds. So I'm wondering like for example in the rag dolls do you see a difference within a breed by color and also when you touched upon sort of hitting genetics down the road. I wonder if you had reached out to like a base pause or a genetic database already out there that could help with that. >> Right. Yeah. So excellent point. Um and I'm so glad I wish that Eileen were here. Um, and basically we're going by what um, uh, when people respond and we just ask them, yeah, what what color is your cat? So, we're going by cat color. And Eileen has pointed that out that there is a difference between, uh, potentially between different um, you know, someone who who has a rag doll that's might be a purebred ragd doll or is mostly rag doll. About 95% of cats are a mix of American shorthairs anyway or American um, uh, cats are a mix. So we are working on becoming more precise with that. Um at the same time we are seeing these um uh statistical you know statistically significant differences like in neuroticism with this admittedly um less than pre you know perfectly precise uh measure. So does that uh answer your question? >> It's great. >> Yeah. Okay. Okay. Awesome. Yeah. Very very good uh uh good question critique uh thought about that. Hi. Uh, awesome talking again. Thank you so much. This is great. Um, my question is, um, in the beginning you were talking about attachment styles and noting that the numbers of the various different styles tend to correlate with cats and humans. Is there a correlation between a cat owner's attachment style to their cat versus an attachment style to their own parents? Right. Right. Oh my goodness. This is so so fascinating. I and I have not done that analysis. Um so and and this is uh I'm so glad they're taping this so I'll remember uh these um uh that point. Do you have any I I know you don't have the the um uh do you have any guesses on that or or hypotheses related to that? >> My hypothesis would be yes because I noticed that in myself. Oh >> yeah. So >> did you hear her? Do you want to repeat what she said? Um I I I think so that so you're saying that's your own um observation is that kind of the replication of or the generational replication of of attachment um uh that that you're seeing and uh and attachment is kind of a um uh when when I present this in in the classroom you know attachment research and I'm not a developmental psychologist um but I always you know because of the students in our in our population um there are many students who've had traumatic um you know you know and and feel like this is um uh this is uh written and will always be that um the way it's going to go um that that you know I have an avoidant attachment or because of you know x y or z and it's written this way there's it's immutable and it can't be changed and the beautiful thing with human beings is it can be changed and it's um and we actually do we have a whole lecture on how it can be changed therapeutically uh in some even just recognition there are some really great uh videos out there on attachment style. Uh recognizing the patterns as well as one of my favorite um percentages uh and very optimistic and lovely percentage is the number of people who are like avoidantly attached or anxiously attached who get into an adult relationship with a securely attached person. the malleability of it doesn't always work, but it's a there's a very high percentage of people who um recalibrate um and and it's especially um potent when it's self-reflection, you know, things things with therapy and that type of thing. I think probably with cats it's probably a more immutable um just because um that's my guess is that because we're seeing this difference you know you would think with the number of tories for instance who are avoidantly attached there would be the same number who would have you know kind of great relationships with uh with their humans or you know okay relationships are not great um there wouldn't be something about the cat that would be producing that so we wouldn't be seeing am I you is that making sense uh so percentage- wise we wouldn't be seeing those differences So I think it's more immutable or more kind of your cat's going to be this way, you know, it's, you know, probably and just kind of preparing the environment around that or recognizing uh that. But um yeah, wonderful question. Thank you for for the humanity of of that question. >> Thank you for your presentation. Um, a couple of years ago I downloaded an app that was supposed to tell you what your cat was saying like you recorded the meow and um I didn't find it very accurate or very good. Don't no offense. I hope nobody involved in that is here. Um, but yeah, it didn't seem very accurate to me. And I wonder if you have any observations about that kind of technology. >> Right. Right. Oh, abs. It's such a This is And this is so um I I I I actually just got an email today about someone who's putting together an app. I didn't know that there was and I was and I'm crafting the email of no, I can't help with that. You know, they they were I think they thought that I might have some uh uh spengali like power to understand meows. Um I I I think that um uh and I I think it's an earnestly it's a sincerely meant and I love this idea of interspecies uh communication being better at that. But I think typically just the auditory um alone I think that auditory clue alone isn't quite enough. I think we typically in everyday interaction need more than that. And so I worry that that's going to lead people astray if they uh if they relied on that. But again, just like Freud kind of uh in the dark here, maybe someday there will be something that will, you know, have have the nuance. Um and the meows that we have collected are all have been collected um you know, a cat in a carrier. Um a cat, you know, waiting for its food, a cat greeting its owner. So they're all they're all contextualized. So they're legit. you know, we know the the background of what those meows are are like, but I think there Yeah, there's so many differences and even my own three cats um that live with me now in their meows. So, yeah, great great question. Yes. >> Hi, thanks for the presentation. I'm wondering if you considered the indoor versus outdoor cats in your data. I'm curious if if that impacts anything in this ratings. >> Yeah, so so I would love to know your thought on that. We we have not asked um indoor and or indoor cats are much more um uh culturally typical in in the U US. Uh interestingly over in Europe and um in uh in the UK that you know people have a different um kind of belief system about and here I think uh indoor cats are you know typically uh we know that they live longer, they're safer, they're less likely to wreak havoc on the poor birds and uh and that type of thing. So I we have not asked that if it's an indoor cat, an outdoor cat or an indooroutdoor cat. Do you have any hypothesis on that or I mean from from my experience we have two cats who are indoor and kind of walk outdoor and their behavior definitely changes a lot when we're consistently letting them kind of go out. >> Okay. Okay. >> But maybe the narcissism changes. But >> yeah, at least with those two cats, >> I I do wonder too about extraversion and you know and you know kind of extroverted um like you know kind of and neuroticism too and avoidance um like my cat uh uh Stagel here. Um uh let's see back one there. So Stel is the uh I meant to say this when we talked about uh extraversion. Someone comes through the door and he he's and he's a large cat. you know, he squeezes, you know, he'll go run to a bedroom and squeeze under the bed. Um, he just is, you know, really very introverted, whereas Mary is like, "Oh, we got people, you know, let's uh let's go hang out with with the people." So, I wonder if uh extraversion, if that might be associated with with cats who want to be out um outdoors. >> Hi there. I'm a little bit skeptical about your research. Maybe because I'm biased because I love orange cats. But the main reason that I have is be when you look at humans and try to look at cats there are different nurture versus nature factors as well. Um we are feral kitten social parents foster parents um and we have our own we had our own cats right now we're in between. How would you look at cats that are ferals versus purebred, raised in the family, adopted later in in life, or being taken away from the mom too early. I mean, those most likely are all factors that could create a different personality and different behavior traits. >> Right. Right. Excellent point. Uh, and we do not ask people about the background of their cats. if they were feral cats, if they were um uh in Maine, we actually our our um uh uh uh animal shelter has barn cats. So there's there there's a cultural difference there that um you want a barn cat, you want your cat to be outside, uh you want you want a mouser, we got them. Um so we did not ask about that. Um at the same time we are seeing these with a pretty large um data set we are seeing these differences uh in for instance uh extraversion um with the tortois shells and that's a statistically significant difference of the oranges versus the tortoise shells. So again it's it's just it's the first foray into um looking at this but I'm assuming that we're it isn't like that oranges are disproportionately feral cats or siamese are disproportionately feral cats. I'm assuming that we're having, you know, the same type of variety of background and experiences with with the different cats. Um, but yeah, it's a a very fair point and um we're always thinking about other things that we should be asking so we can look at that as a uh statistically to see if there's a difference there. Um if that is actually what might be exerting um the differences that we're observing. Yeah, thank you for that. Yes. Yeah. Hi. Um, it's maybe not a well-formed question, but it's a curious thought of mine. How well you think that cats can kind of like intuitit these aspects in people. And a little anecdote that brings this up is that my dad has had cats for the last like 30 years of his life, but he never adopted them. that just sort of showed up and then, you know, like maybe they kind of like saw him around the neighborhood and were like, "This guy looks pretty safe, you know, maybe go chill." Um, and so I was just kind of curious about like, you know, the not necessarily the people picked the cat, but like the cat picked a person, you know. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Lovely. And there are so many stories um like that of people who or or people who say um you know a partner came in and you know the cat didn't like them uh that they they kind of trusted their their cat's intuition uh with the uh it's and so I I think there's something to that or or people who have just this gravitational pull uh w with uh was your was your dad or is your dad a particularly calm person or um gentle I think so. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. And so or it could be like the cats are texting each other like, "Hey, you know this uh there's tuna this week." Yeah. That's Yeah. Very uh so that's that's beyond the the scope of my research, but it is a really interesting research and I um I I I just love the idea of the the magic out there there um that some folks have. >> My mother used to say, "Feed him and he's yours." Yeah. Yeah. >> Hi. Yeah. Thank you for the talk. Um I was wondering if we see these statistically uh significant differences among different code colors if there's like some biological basis for this like if uh the traits are like maybe encoded on the same genes or like colllocated with the same genes that of color or like if you had like any thoughts about like the why like biologically beyond just like >> Right. Right. Yeah. a a great question and um I feel like when um Eileene uh Vanderland who's the biology she's she's getting her masters in biology um and she's actually going through our entire database to make it more precise. So, uh something uh and she actually wants people in the future to upload a picture of their cat um because she knows a lot about like um genes that turn on and turn off and and so she has some suspicions um about that. And so, yeah, I think we're we're going to be getting uh that more in focus uh thanks to to Eileen and and her um her expertise. I I think there also could be some sex um uh related uh uh traits like oranges are 80% male and tois are almost all female. So when I look at um for instance the neuroticism the the dramatic difference between uh oranges oranges being much more uh sedate and tortois shells being uh much more uh much more neurotic. Uh I actually did a a little YouTube on this of that kind of the toy um high neuroticism. They're actually a little bit higher than average in intelligence, low agreeableness that that would evolutionarily make sense for um even if she didn't doesn't have uh kittens uh for a mother to be wary to you know trust but verify or or never verify before you trust. Uh, so I think some of these could be sex-typed too, but yeah, but Eileen is going to lead the way, I think, to make things clearer with uh um with things that might be genetically um uh coded. >> Hello, I'm in the back here. Hi. Uh thanks for the talk. It's uh fantastic. Uh I might have missed this when you were talking about the intelligence test. Um, but I really like the idea of us uh humans learning or trying to associate meows with, you know, what they mean. Um, you know, we were convinced that our cat could understand every word that we said. Is that something that's part of this IQ test? They're judging the cat's ability to understand their humans or have you done any uh research on that? So um I think the only um aspect of our intelligence test that gets at that we have a question uh about emotional intelligence that the emotional intelligence one is my cat seems to understand what I um what I'm feeling. So uh and so some cats are very low on that and some cats are very high on that one item on the intelligence test. Uh, and we did find that emotional intelligence was higher with senior cats than with either kittens or or adult cats. So, um, we we wonder if it's the kind of repetition kind of the Pavlovian repetition or um, to be more um, spiritual about it, you know, the emotional connection that they've had um, with with the human. Um, but but I bet you're right. I bet there are um individual differences in some cats being more kind of emotionally intelligent um more intuitive, you know, making those, you know, maybe um uh auditory connections more quickly than other cats and and wanting to attend to those. >> Hi, thank you so much for your talk. Um I absolutely love that you included adoptable rescue cats um in in your data and that you showed it on the screen. Uh my husband and I are actually opening a cat sanctuary for feral cats and we've currently taken 15 off the street. Uh 11 12 of which are still incredibly feral and mean, but we love them anyways. Um but my question to you is um with this research, is there um a goal or a hope for you in wanting to um help cats get adopted? Um maybe reduce the cats on the streets. Um, and then but also on the other hand, are there also fears that the research that you're doing could also affect certain cats from not getting adopted as much? Um, for example, I've worked in cat rescue here and in the Netherlands um, since 2020. And whenever I worked in Pennsylvania, the rescue I worked with, we would um, we were really worried about adopting black cats out because there was a lot of stigma associated with black cats. So, I'm worried that maybe someone um will take this research and now there'll be like um a lot of tortoise shell cats that don't get um adopted because of Right. That for example. Really? Yeah. Thank you for Thank you for uh raising that. I had not thought about that um possibility. Um I I think maybe knowing what you're getting in for, you know, so understanding a tortoise shell uh is going to have, you know, um and again, your mileage may vary. Um, I I I I think that compatibility I I I will take that very seriously and I and I'll I'll ponder that. It's a it's a very good point. Um, I think compatibility, the benefits of compatibility and learning about potential compatibility with, again, knowing that this isn't for sure, but these are trends that we're seeing that those would be a a benefit that would outweigh anything of like, o, you know, I I that's I don't want a cat that is um that that particular um, you know, color. Um, I would think that this would actually um uh you know uh increase our uh you know precision of how we talk about uh cat personality. Uh when you talked about black cats, they actually are are actually pretty high in extraversion and high in agreeableness. In our study, we found that. So maybe that would actually interrupt the perceptions, you know, kind of the cultural perceptions. In Japan, they actually have um similar um kind of, you know, bad luck or, you know, different perceptions of black cats. And they have cat cafes that are particularly dedicated to only black cats to uh you know, kind of culturally and the and cat cafes are incredibly uh popular over in Japan. I think it's a horse race between America, the United States and and Japan for who's more, you know, cat uh greater cat enthusiasts. Um but they have much lower adoption rates. Only about 8% of households have cats um in uh in Japan because of the uh uh kind of restrictions for uh for renting and and and smaller uh spaces and that type of thing. So cat cafes are really uh popular over there where people kind of um uh you know see cats uh through that uh that effort. So I I I will I'll meditate on that. Thank you for your for your thank you first of all for your service uh for doing that for saving uh you know so many you know otherwise you know uh forgotten particularly those forgotten populations um so yeah I guess that's uh those are things that I will uh will ponder but I would hope that um you know just as with uh extraversion in human personality uh we were kind of in this era of extraversion is the best pl best way to be the best you know uh you know kind of a uh elevation of extroversion kind of the power personality when in fact there are so many positive and in personality researchers have been looking at the positive aspects of folks who are introverted they actually share the uh the um the oxygen better uh in the workplace uh they're more they ponder things they're less likely to be blirtatious um there are many you know benefits And so kind of when you have a cultural ascendancy or a cultural endorsement or a cultural expectation that this is, you know, uh the way to be and some people aren't that way. I think um the more information that we have, the more scientific information we have um can elevate uh those different um uh whether it's a different uh coat color or uh a different personality trait. And so respecting that and and you know variety and spice of life and all that stuff. So, it looks like it is uh is 7 o'clock. I think we have about 10 more minutes for uh for questions if anyone has any other questions. >> I think Eve is back there with someone. Eve. Hi. Here. Yeah. Um thank you so much. This is a very interesting and inspiring research. Um I I sort of shared the the concern that the last person um uh spoke about and as you were answering um I was wondering if perhaps you have considered or you're or you know you're very familiar with these scales the ocean and the uh types of attachment theories that maybe to a a lay person kind of land as more like posit positive versus negative, right? And maybe that's not the intention behind it. Um, when the public is consuming this data, um, is there maybe an opportunity to frame these results as less, you know, this is better versus this is worse? Um, and has that come across, you know, during this this uh research? And again, thank you so much. I think we're learning so much today. >> Yeah. And I want to make sure I understand. um uh correctly. So, so like the IQ um there's there's interesting like actually this real pride in having you know a cat that is kind of unbothered or chaotic or um you know not not the brightest uh bulb on the porch. Um so so I get this the sense that the cat community I even detected that um uh that there is like a a uh a valuing more or a uh acknowledgement but just as with people that we have some folks that are more introverted we have some folks that are more extroverted and all of them have a have a role to play that we shouldn't all be extroverted or all introverted or all agreeable or all you know Tommy Lee Jones I don't know much about him watch there's some scandal that comes out in in a day or two. Um but he's very tacetern kind of low in agreeableness but that kind of gruffness there's the right you know um uh uh yeah role to play and that that makes for a richer movie and a richer you know kind of kind of tapestry and so I don't think that that the research or um personality research or for cats or for humans uh necessarily um values one over the other. But but again that I'm going to take that to heart and and and and meditate on that because I that would not be my intention uh to you know to elevate one more or you know that you should have an agreeable cat or you should have a you know like grumpy cat you know just uh you know great uh um great cat and uh so yeah thank you for the question. Does that uh someone answer? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Hello. Uh, right here. I'm um interested about dominance uh in cats. Is that something that falls in the under the line of neuroticism? Um, and also, uh, cats interacting with each other, like different kinds of cats, such as like we have two black cats and one main mix, tabby mix, I think. Um, and I sometimes wonder, you know, what the their interactions um are about, right? um as far as dominance specifically goes and territory and things like that. >> Right. Right. So um we did not there there's actually another um uh group after we did our study. We were really interested um in using the same uh assessments that are used with humans. So we could look at some uh compatibilities between humans and uh and cats to see if there were correlations if people tended to just project their own personality onto their cats. We haven't found that. Um, so that was one of our way back when that was one of our hypotheses like do people just see their own reflection in their cats and we have not found that. So that was one of the reasons that we used like conscientiousness rather than another research group um I've heard uses dominance. They get rid of that conscientiousness. They're like no that's not really something we can apply to cats. Let's look at dominant versus more submissive cats. So there is a group out there and I don't know what they have uh found related to uh I don't know if they've looked at cat color. Um, so again, I'm not a cat behaviorist. I'm a personal, a human personality uh theorist by trade. Uh, and so I'm applying those um, uh, those tools with cats to look at different cat colors. So cat compatibility, I would leave that to a to a behaviorist, but yeah, it's a great question and that is something that uh, you know, folks are as they're looking to blend households, you know, when one person marries uh, someone else or or or puts a household together, how are how are those cats going to get along? So, that's very valid research, but yeah, not not something that we've been doing. Yeah. Thank you. >> I have one back here. >> Um, so I was wondering if there's any other cat breeds out of all the cats you've been studying that had a lower um like amount of intelligence than all the other like besides the orange and the ragd doll. >> Yeah. So, so it's it's the two of them. They're they're right at the uh at the bottom. And at at this point we have about uh in the intelligence I think around a little less than 7,000 uh cats there. And so we have uh 986 uh oranges, 123 ragdolls. So the two of them are at least as a group are by far the lowest um in our in and again in our assessment of int of of intelligence. There's also the question of validity. Is there going to be a better IQ test that's going to come out there? Like they have with with dogs, they have these behavioral things where they'll hide um uh hide a toy and see how long it takes the dog to get the toy. Uh so they'll actually have behavioral assessments. This is what has what we call face validity. You know, questions that we think, you know, how how how good of a memory does your cat have? Does it make spontaneous associations and things like that? Um and so yeah, the orange and the ragd doll have been uh been way at the bottom. That said, uh we just had a couple of days ago a um you know a toy who um got like a 68 on the IQ test. So even though a tortois shell is a little bit higher than average um one particular to it doesn't say anything about one particular uh tortois shell for instance. >> Okay, we'll go to our last question with this young lady up front. >> Hi. Um, I'm concerned about the influence of owners on the phenomena of predation and responsibility of cat owners to influence their kitties about predation. >> So I I should know what predation means. Can you define predation? >> Oh, I mean going out and and chasing butterflies and lizards. >> Oh, okay. So cats so cats so outdoor cats um being predatory. >> Yes. And something about the relationship between >> how as owners can influence a tendency be aware of which cats are most pred prone to predation. >> Right. Exactly. Yeah. >> Very very important topic. >> Yep. Absolutely. And that's one thing I'm really proud um that we have uh indoor cats, you know, and the importance of of indoor cats um you know, just to um uh just the devastation for birds in particular um is uh is extraordinary. So indoor cats uh if that that'll be my other uh uh uh uh sermonet. Um they they live longer, they live healthier lives. um and the other creatures um in your sphere are are much better off with uh with them being uh being indoor indoor critters. So, and one last question uh before we Oh, >> oh, >> hi. Um, so you mentioned that you had tested people on how well they can uh identify the meanings of cats meows, but I had heard that um it's varies significantly between cats what each sound makes because they're not necessarily, you know, the cuz cats don't naturally meow as adults in the wild. They meow specifically to communicate with humans. So they might make up different words for different things. >> Right. Right. Yes. Great point. So the um we got all of the meows and actually knowing your cats meow, you know. So So my three cats meow very differently when they want uh one meows a lot more than uh than the other two. Uh when they want food, they meow. All their meows are different. With that feline fluency assessment, we there was a database of about a hundred different meows. And so there were 14 different cats that this was the context that we um uh that we taped the meow in. So they were novel cats to the to the listener. The listener did not have any relationship with those cats. And they were individual, you know, it wasn't the same cat. Okay. Now, now here's Fred um you know, meowing for his food. Here's Fred getting in the carrier and having to go to the vet. So it was a it was a novel cat in all 14 of the assessments. Um so really difficult uh auditory only. Our next study we're planning to have um including other like contextual cues. So you know this is the you know the visual of of what is happening. But despite that being really difficult people not having a relationship with that cat we still saw individual differences 0 to 10 um in that um out of 14 identifying um those correctly. And we saw that that sex difference was which was a statistically significant sex difference 5 point uh 5.1 versus 6.0 uh as well as the correlation a slight correlation with how many cats people had owned. So I I think there's probably something in kind of cat whisperers some folks who have uh pretty extraordinary abilities to uh uh to understand um uh cat's intentions. So this was I I had said to my daughter Grace on our way here. I'm like or or this morning would 25 people. Wouldn't that be great? Uh so this has been a tremendous tremendous gift that Michelle said yes that you all came out to do this tonight in your beautiful city. Uh I feel such warm welcome. I feel a new renewed energy. I have had some great questions and new ideas for our next research um uh endeavors. Uh Bryce is uh in Mexico right now and he's going to be seeing this uh this video. Uh so I just want to pop up here our uh QR code if you wanted to uh take down uh follow us on uh on our social media and stuff. Uh, thank you again for a really lovely night, your wonderful questions, and your commitment to loving those weird little guys just as they are. Thank you, Carol. And we'll have you back anytime. If there's a part two, happy to bring it in.