When we’re talking about a person we often ask “what kind of person they are” or want to know more about their personality. Did you know there have also been studies on cat personalities as well?

Indeed, it’s not only humans that have certain personality traits, but cats do, too.

According to Australian research that was conducted a few years ago, domestic cats display certain features that help experts put them under specific categories based on their personality types. Before the research in question, there had only been studies on wild animals, so this one was particularly interesting.

In fact, studying animal behavior and personality has always been important to scientists, since, decoding their needs and preferences would make it easy for their carers to treat them appropriately.

For instance, getting to know the personality of a wild animal living in a zoo, would make it easier for the zookeepers to make sure the animal was healthy and happy in their environment.

And then the time came to study cats. The study in question involved 2,802 domestic cats, including both indoor and outdoor cats, in Australia and New Zealand. The owners were asked to rate their cats’ personalities based on 52 micro-traits, and from there, experts worked on narrowing them down to 5 personality types.

Is that the most impressive thing? No, what can’t go unnoticed, though, is the fact that three out of five personality types also correspond to human personality- the famous Big Five personality traits.

Why do we suspect this does not come as a surprise to most people out there?!

So, let’s take a look at each cat personality type and what micro-traits they consist of.

The first one is skittishness.

Cats that got high scores in this category tend to be more anxious, suspicious, shy, and fearful of people and other cats, while the ones that scored low were calm and were found to trust humans more easily. This category would correspond to neuroticism in people.

The second cat personality trait that was examined was outgoingness.

Cats that scored higher in this category were found to be curious, active, inquisitive, and smart, while those that scored low scores were characterized as aimless and quitting. This type also corresponds to a human personality type, extraversion. People who belong to this category are usually energetic and outgoing- just like their feline counterparts.

Moving on to the third type, this one is feline-specific and does not correspond to a human personality type. This one has to do with dominance.

Cats that are highly dominant are considered to be bullying and aggressive towards their peers, while those that scored lower in this category were friendly and submissive to other felines.

The fourth type is related to spontaneity.

Highly spontaneous cats were found to be mostly impulsive, erratic and reckless, while cats that didn’t score high in this category were characterized as predictable and constrained. This type does not correspond to a human personality type either.

Finally, there’s friendliness, which means cats are affectionate and gentle towards people and other cats, while those who scored low in this category are considered solitary and irritable.

This one corresponds to agreeableness in people, which translates to friendliness and compassion.

Wow, isn’t it fun to realize that we are more similar to our furry friends than we could ever imagine?

Why not try to find out what personality type your cat belongs to?

Watch the video below!

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Source: Denver Post, Catster, Australia Science, Wikipedia