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Humans Are Totally Biased Towards Cats of Different Colors, Study Says

Cats come in a lot of different colors, a fact you may have noticed if you've spent time on this Internet thing. But as popular as cats are, do we perceive them different based on their fur? Are people actually color-ist towards felines? According to a...

Cats come in a lot of different colors, a fact you may have noticed if you’ve spent time on this Internet thing. But as popular as cats are, do we perceive them different based on their fur? Are people actually color-ist towards felines? According to a new study, that may be the case.

Mikel Delgado, a psychology doctoral student at Berkeley, just published a new paper in Anthrozoos showing the results of a survey of people who were asked to assign personality traits to various shades of kitty. The 189 respondents all had “experience with cats”—I’m guessing former or current owners, not random cat fanciers—and were asked to rate their reactions to various shades of kitty. As it turns out, people indeed assigned a significantly different set of terms to different cat colors.

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Let’s get this out of the way first: All domestic housecats are the same species, Felis catis, and it’s highly doubtful that a cat’s color is actually related to behavior or psychological traits. (A Google Scholar search did unearth this behavior study of 14 cats in one home.) Also, it’s an online survey, which aren’t always the most reliable, especially considering the respondents were found via Craigslist ads in major metro areas. (Who but cat people would even respond to such a thing?) But it’s hard to see why respondents would have some sort of skewed bias with such a straightforward survey.

Anyway, the respondents were asked to assign any of a set of 10 terms (active, aloof, bold, calm, friendly, intolerant, shy, stubborn, tolerant, and trainable), on a scale of 1-7, to five different hues of cat (orange, calico, white, black, and bi-colored). Orange cats were deemed friendly, “intolerance” was assigned to calico cats (who were also noted as having “too much attitude”), and “aloofness” was given to both white and calico.

I know you’re wondering about black cats. They, along with the white and calico cats, were generally considered more antisocial than orange cats, but they also were less likely to be assigned high-intensity traits, which a Berkeley release hilariously notes may “contribute to their mysterious reputation.” There’s a sad part to it all though: While black cats might be seen as more mellow, if less cuddly, they’re less likely to be adopted from shelters, and more likely to be euthanized. So, yeah, there’s some potential color bias for you.

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"To date there is little evidence that these perceived differences between differently colored cats actually exist, but there are serious repercussions for cats if people believe that some cat colors are friendlier than others," Delgado said in the release. "We hope that this study will be a starting point for further research in what qualities affect adoption and retention of pet cats, and whether there is a genetic or physical basis (such as coat color) for personality differences in cats."

Interestingly, many of the respondents said that the actual personality, not color, of cats they’d seen factored into their decisions. But the statistically-significant differences in responses suggest that either cats actually do have behavioral differences based on color, or that people have inherent, if unacknowledged, biases towards cats of a certain color.

More research is needed, of course, but the second scenario is far more likely. Still, why would people not admit that they assume cats of different colors have different behaviors? I’ve got no problem admitting that I think white cats are a bunch of aloof, spoiled brats — why else would they use a white cat for Fancy Feast? — while I know for a fact that my own orange cat, Sir Abner, is the chillest-ass feline in the known universe. But man, when black cats aren’t getting adopted, I guess being colorist towards cats is actually a pretty sad thing.

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Follow Derek Mead on Twitter: @derektmead.