Turns Out Cats Bond With Their Owners In The Same Way Children Bond With Parents

Interview With Expert

Stop the presses, dogs might not be people’s only best friends anymore! Felines are also angling to take up the mantle of our special buddies after scientists have made some startling conclusions in recent research.

Scientists at Oregon State University conducted a study and proved that our favorite felines can form secure bonds with their owners — just like doggos do. What this means is that cats, no matter how arrogant or aloof they might act, really do care about us and think of us as their caregivers. Scroll down for Bored Panda’s interview with the study author Kristyn Vitale!

Scientists discovered an amazing thing about cats!

Turns Out Cats Bond With Their Owners In The Same Way Children Bond With Parents

Image credits: nmkd

Attachment behavior studies involve reuniting kids with their parents or caregivers after a short period of absence. Previously, researchers found that human babies, baby monkeys, and cute lil puppers can be securely or insecurely attached to their parents. Naturally, scientists decided to test the theory with kittens as well.

Research shows that cattos can form secure bonds with their owners…

Turns Out Cats Bond With Their Owners In The Same Way Children Bond With Parents

Image credits: Current Biology

Turns Out Cats Bond With Their Owners In The Same Way Children Bond With Parents

Image credits: Current Biology

Well, scientists found that around two-thirds (or 65 percent to be exact) of kittens were securely bonded to their owners. What’s more, these bonds stayed firm right into adulthood. The ratio of secure to insecure bonds is almost identical to that found in human babies as well.

…just like dogs, monkeys and even human babies!

Turns Out Cats Bond With Their Owners In The Same Way Children Bond With Parents

Image credits: Current Biology

But what exactly is (in)secure bonding? Well, it’s pretty simple. A secure bond means that when a kitten’s owner returns to them, the catto will both pay attention to them and explore its surroundings. Meanwhile, an insecure bond means that the kitten’s seriously stressed-out: it avoids its owner, and has the body language of an animal that’s anxious.

That means that two-thirds of felines view their owners as their caretakers or even parents

Turns Out Cats Bond With Their Owners In The Same Way Children Bond With Parents

Image credits: reddit.com

Turns Out Cats Bond With Their Owners In The Same Way Children Bond With Parents

Image credits: MissGrafin

Bored Panda interviewed study author and researcher Kristyn Vitale from the Human-Animal Interaction Lab at Oregon State University to hear more about her research and its implications.

“Although pet cats outnumber dogs in many countries, including the United States, we still know little about cat behavior and human-cat interactions,” Vitale said. “There has been relatively little research into the cat-human bond, especially when we compare it to the number of research studies with dogs and humans.”

“So our motivation was to bring more knowledge to this field of study. The research itself went very smoothly and we did not have any issues recruiting cats and owners to participate. Overall, this was a fairly easy study to conduct.”

Even though cattos might seem arrogant and aloof, they really do care about us

Turns Out Cats Bond With Their Owners In The Same Way Children Bond With Parents

Image credits: dee m

Vitale continued: “We found that the attachment bond cats display toward their owners is very similar to the bond dogs share with their owners and even the bond human infants display toward their caretakers.”

“All three species display the same distinct patterns of attachment behavior. The majority of individuals in all species are securely attached to their caregiver, meaning they use their caregiver as a source of comfort and security in an unfamiliar situation.”

Turns Out Cats Bond With Their Owners In The Same Way Children Bond With Parents

Image credits: Phillip Stewart

The researcher mentioned, however, that there is some room for improving the study, and hinted at possible future studies.

“We are hoping this is the first of many projects looking into cat-human attachment. Although we found that cats display attachment behavior toward their owners we still do not know what factors influence the formation of these attachment bonds or what factors may strengthen the human-cat bond.”

“In the future, we will look at some of these questions. Right now we are examining how socialization opportunities impact the formation of attachment bonds in shelter cats and ways to use this information to increase shelter cat adoption rates.”

Turns Out Cats Bond With Their Owners In The Same Way Children Bond With Parents

Image credits: mystelynx

Vitale also had this to say to Science Daily: “Like dogs, cats display social flexibility in regard to their attachments with humans. The majority of cats are securely attached to their owner and use them as a source of security in a novel environment.”

“Once an attachment style has been established between the cat and its caregiver, it appears to remain relatively stable over time, even after a training and socialization intervention. Cats that are insecure can be likely to run and hide or seem to act aloof. There’s long been a biased way of thinking that all cats behave this way. But the majority of cats use their owner as a source of security. Your cat is depending on you to feel secure when they are stressed out,” Vitale explained.

Dogs might not be people’s only best friends anymore

Turns Out Cats Bond With Their Owners In The Same Way Children Bond With Parents

Image credits: KLMircea

Dear Pandas, what do you think of these startling discoveries? Will they make you look at cats differently from now on? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

You can watch a video of a cat attachment experiment in progress right here

People were happy to hear this purrfect piece of news

Turns Out Cats Bond With Their Owners In The Same Way Children Bond With Parents

Storytelling, journalism, and art are a core part of who I am. I've been writing and drawing ever since I could walk—there is nothing else I'd rather do. My formal education, however, is focused on politics, philosophy, and economics because I've always been curious about the gap between the ideal and the real. At work, I'm a Senior Writer and I cover a broad range of topics that I'm passionate about: from psychology and changes in work culture to healthy living, relationships, and design. In my spare time, I'm an avid hiker and reader, enjoy writing short stories, and love to doodle. I thrive when I'm outdoors, going on small adventures in nature. However, you can also find me enjoying a big mug of coffee with a good book (or ten) and entertaining friends with fantasy tabletop games and sci-fi movies.

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Greta is a Photo Editor-in-Chief at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication.In 2016, she graduated from Digital Advertising courses where she had an opportunity to meet and learn from industry professionals. In the same year, she started working at Bored Panda as a photo editor.Greta is a coffeeholic and cannot survive a day without 5 cups of coffee... and her cute, big-eared dog.Her biggest open secret: she is a gamer with a giant gaming backlog.

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What do you think ?

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Felix Feline 5 years ago

Everyone who has ever lived with a cat already knew this.

62points

Dynein 5 years ago

Honestly I thought that scientists knew about this already, too. I read a book as a child that basically said that humans are like a cat mother to cats, and it makes so much sense and there is so much obvious evidence: the treading (meant to improve milk flow from the mother), the stroking (mothers lick their kittens clean), the raised tail (mothers also lick the kitten's butt clean). Cats aren't social creatures, so it makes sense that they'd interpret interaction with humans as the only kind of longer-term socializing their ancestors had in nature.

11points

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