Seven personality and behavior characteristics of cats

Cats are our most common pets.
Due to a series of behavioral problems, cats' behavior is increasingly being studied
.
In addition to behavioral characteristics, another interesting topic is personality, because it can be linked to behavioral problems

"Compared with dogs, people know less about cats' behavior and personality, so we need to identify related problems and risk factors
.
" We need more understanding and tools to eliminate problematic behaviors and improve cat welfare

Seven personality and behavior characteristics of cats

Professor Hannes Lohi’s research team designed a questionnaire to investigate personality and behavior through 138 statements

• Activities/Fun

• fear

• Aggression against humans

• Social skills for humans

• Social skills for cats

• Trash can problems (urinating in inappropriate places, the cleanliness of the trash can and the accuracy of the substrate material)

• Too much modification

"Although the number of personality traits found in previous studies vary, active/naughty, fearful and aggressive are the most common personality traits we found in previous studies
.
" Mikola added: "Littering Garbage and excessive grooming are not a cat’s personality traits, but they can indicate a cat’s sensitivity to stress

Universal differences in characteristics seen between different breeds

In addition to individuals, there are also obvious personality differences between breeds

"The most terrifying breed is Russian Blue, and Abyssinia is the least terrible
.
Bengals are the most active breeds, while Persians and exotic dogs are the most passive breeds

The researchers want to emphasize that at this critical moment, there are no pairwise comparisons of different breeds
.

"We want to roughly understand whether there are differences
in personality characteristics between different breeds .
In further research, we will use more complex models to test the factors that affect personality characteristics and problem behaviors

Assess reliability and validity

For example, the behavior and personality of cats can be studied through questionnaire surveys for cat owners
.
Such questionnaires can measure the behavior of cats in long-term and daily environments, which is impossible in behavioral tests

"Internationally, our research is by far the most extensive and important survey.
It provides a good opportunity for further research
.
The reliability of previous cat behavior questionnaires has not been measured so widely, nor has it been This questionnaire is so comprehensive
.
Establishing reliability is the key to making further analysis valuable and being able to reliably identify various risk factors," Lohi said
.

Researchers contacted cat owners who answered the questionnaire one to three months ago and asked them to fill out the questionnaire again, or ask another adult in the same family to answer the questionnaire about the same cat
.
The purpose is to assess the reliability of the questionnaire between the time and the respondent
.
Based on the two additional data sets accumulated through this method, the time of the questionnaire and the reliability between the respondents can be evaluated
.

"By comparing these answers, we noticed that the answers to the same cat were very similar, while personality and behavioral characteristics were found to be repeatable and reliable
.
We also checked the validity of the questionnaire, or whether it measured its intention Things to measure
.
In these areas, the questionnaire also played a very good role," Mikkola said
.

The research carried out by Roche’s team will make it possible to determine the genetic, environmental and personality factors associated with cats’ problematic behaviors
.

Journal Reference :

1. Salla Mikkola, Milla Salonen, Emma Hakanen, Sini Sulkama, Hannes Lohi.
   Reliability and Validity of Seven Feline Behavior and Personality Traits .
   Animals , 2021; 11 (7): 1991 DOI: 10.
   3390/ani11071991