Felines Might be Psychopaths

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Felines might be psychopaths. Felines may seem like your best friends, but they may want to eat you. A team of scientists at the Liverpool John Moores University in the UK and the University of Liverpool created a survey for owners of cats to figure out if the felines living with them qualify for cat psychopathy.

They made up a survey that had questions such as, “My cat calls out loudly (e.g., yowls, meows) for no reason,” “My cat does not appear to act guilty after misbehaving,” and “My cat rips throughout the house for no reason.” The scientists published the survey to take online here for cat owners.

Psychopathy in Cats

The scientist collected data from the questions amongst the 549 cat owners surveyed to create the criteria for psychopathy in cats.

Researchers began with the “triarchic” theory of psychopathy, where levels of disinhibition, boldness, and meanness were used to measure psychopathy in humans.

The scientists noted that these three traits also developed as dynamics that gear toward a psychotic feline, but two other factors arose: pet-unfriendliness and human-unfriendliness.

Cat Triarchic Plus

Researchers called this new technique of measuring psychopathic cats the Cat Triarchic Plus or CAT-Tri+.

One of the lead researchers said that what led them to start this research was cats, and the differences in their personalities inspired them.

One of the researchers’ cats named Axel also participated in a part of the study that appointed activity trackers to cats to see how they go about their day.

“Axel is courageous and is known to go into the neighbour’s garages, cars, and even their houses searching for food,” the researcher said—a sign of a feline psychopath.

This may all sound like your standard cat stuff, and all cats most likely have a trait of psychopathy. However, these behaviours make much sense for their wild ancestors, whose only goals were mates, securing food, and territory.

Nevertheless, cats do not make sense in a small apartment where meow mix is doled out on schedule, so to humans, skyrocketing up walls and slamming other pets seems deranged.