Research studies links between cat color and personality traits
As any sharer of space with a small creature (aka a “pet owner”) can attest, animals have personalities, each as unique as any human. “My dog is anxious.” “My cat is snuggly.” “My cockatoo is feisty.”
But what about the common perceptions around cat personalities and coat color? Is it true that orange cats are more friendly and less intelligent? Are calico cats more aloof? Do black cats bring bad luck? (Okay, we do not have an answer for that one yet.)
After a light-hearted classroom discussion with her students about whether the personality testing they were discussing could be applied to a pet, University of Maine Farmington’s Karol Maybury, Ph.D., professor of psychology, and Bryce Cundick, MLS, library director, decided to take a closer look.
Could coat color really predict a cat’s intelligence? Do cats and owners share personality traits? Could personality testing help pave a path for identifying therapy cats or increasing adoption success rates?
“Bryce came up after class and asked why hasn’t anyone done a psycho-biography on cats. They are each so very different,” said Maybury. “So, we decided to look into it. Could we do a deep dive on what their personality is like in terms of the Five Factor theory?”
After a literature review turned up studies on attachment in cats but not on measuring personality traits, the team created a questionnaire based on the Five Factor Model’s broad categories to describe personality.
Owners were asked to list the cat’s color and then answer a series of questions designed to ascertain certain traits, from intelligence to conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability, openness, and extraversion.
Questions ranged from a cat’s ability to quickly find a hidden toy (intelligence) to how they respond to a visit from a stranger (Run and hide? Come explore?)
After receiving more than 1,000 responses in the first six weeks, Maybury and Cundick began to crunch the data, putting out YouTube videos outlining some of their findings. At this point, the project has received well over 6,000 responses from around the world and has been presented at several conferences.
The team found that Bengal cats were most intelligent, followed closely by Maine Coons. Ragdolls were at the bottom, with orange cats second to last. Orange and tuxedo cats were most agreeable, with tortoiseshell coming in last in that category.
“I do think there may be something to these differences being a function of coat color,” said Maybury. “The responses are probably subjective but even when it is a weakness, people claimed it. They showed more tenderness towards their not-so-bright, or lazy or shy cat. ‘You are okay just as you are.’ I love that aspect of it.”
The study showed that cats and owners may somewhat take after one another, although it is not a strong correlation. In the area of neuroticism, though, they did not find any correspondence. Neuroticism also did not correspond with number of cats owned.
“We did look at whether the number of cats people had was correlated with their neuroticism because of the ‘crazy cat lady’ stereotype, but there was no correlation. So people who had five cats were not more neurotic than people who had one.”
While Maybury concedes that this work may not be as meaningful as her work in aviation safety or a colleagues’ work in remote therapy for veterans, she hopes that they are laying the groundwork for a further understanding of our feline friends. She hopes that it may someday help identify cats suitable for adoption or for therapy programs.
Another benefit of this type of work could be in its ability to find common ground with one another over our mutual love of our pets.
“The depth which with people are hungry to tell us about their cats,” said Maybury, “there is something that is very tender and hopeful in that. With all the division and political violence and animosity, I do hope our pets can be a meeting ground of commonality and of tenderness and respect of these complex creatures.”