Cats may be communicating their desires rather than their emotions when they meow at their owners, according to a new study from the University of São Paulo. The findings indicate that feline vocalizations are used as a social tool to gain human attention and fulfill needs, rather than as a sign of affection.
Researchers designed an experiment to explore the "audience effect" in cats, which refers to how the presence of others can influence communication signals. The study involved 38 cats who were presented with an unsolvable task involving their favorite food under two conditions: with their owner present and with their owner absent.
When an owner was in the room, the cats vocalized significantly more, often standing still and making direct eye contact. In contrast, when left alone, the cats tended to stare silently at the door without meowing.
These observations suggest that meowing functions as a socially directed signal. "[This] is consistent with meowing functioning as a socially directed signal rather than a purely motivational response," the research team stated in their study, published in Animal Behaviour. The increased vocalization and directed gaze towards humans when the task was unsolvable implies the cats were attempting to solicit help or attention.
The study also noted that a greater proportion of meows were produced while the cats' heads were pointed towards their humans, further supporting the idea that meowing is a communicative act aimed at people.
The researchers concluded that these findings are consistent with meowing serving as a communicative signal rather than solely an expression of internal motivation or emotion. This research follows a previous study that found cats may not distinguish between different human emotional vocalizations, perceiving various sounds as similar.
While cats do react to human emotional outbursts, they appear less adept at distinguishing the specific emotions conveyed. This suggests that a cat might not differentiate between a human's laughter, sobs, screams, or shouts. Unlike dogs and horses, which show evidence of processing different emotions in distinct parts of their brains, current findings do not indicate similar capabilities in cats regarding vocal tone.
