2023-04-06 15:44:31
Some have no doubts. Others ask themselves this at least once in their life. The truth is that yes: some cats could be defined as psychopaths, but not in the way we understand it. Let’s explain ourselves better: psychopathy is a human mental disorder defined by several distinctive traits including the lack of empathy and the ability to manipulate. Cats are not human beings, nor would they ever want to be. So using the same terms of comparison is impossible. But ethologists have found a way to evaluate how psychopathic a feline version of a cat can be, evaluating a series of behaviors that today could be defined as “deviant” even if in the past they allowed the survival of wild cats.
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Psychopathic spectrum
All cats are likely to have at least some element of psychopathy as it is a genetic legacy left by their ancestors in terms of acquiring resources, territory and mating opportunities. Not surprisingly, psychopathy is considered an innate trait rather than something that develops in response to violence, faulty upbringing or stressors. In the human population, statistics speak of an incidence of less than 1%. In felines, the data is not known, even if this percentage is decidedly higher. This is because, in human terms, psychopaths are indifferent, aloof, manipulative, and antisocial while in felines, the psychopathic spectrum includes meanness, audacity, disinhibition, as well as hostility toward humans and other animals.
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The test to find out
Researchers from the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University have created a quiz to allow everyone to get an idea of their cat’s level of psychopathy. It all comes from their three studies which involved more than two thousand people who live with at least one cat. They were given a 46-question questionnaire to figure out if their cats fell on the psychopathic spectrum. There are now several short versions of it, like this version in 20 questions which asks you to rate very common behaviors like liking cuddles or notstarting to run suddenly for no apparent reasontorment their own preys instead of killing them or showing carelessness in the face of danger.
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The results
By giving a score of one to five to each proposed question, it will be possible to calculate the level of audacity, meanness, rudeness and disinhibition, which manifests itself as a reduced behavioral restraint and an altered regulation of affects and impulses. From these percentages it is then calculated how much your cat is psychopathic as a percentage compared to a more balanced specimen. My cat, who I would never call psychopathic, turned out to be 17.7%. However, it must be said that it is not always easy to interpret the behavior of cats: very often we tend to misunderstand them, and this can lead us to give incorrect answers. Then, another limitation of the test is that some behaviors such as attention seeking, aggression or territoriality could be an acquired trait of character due to past experiences. In this case, the disinhibited or detached behavior would not be innate, so it would not in fact fall under the psychopathic spectrum.
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Words matter
Labeling a cat as a psychopath, rather than more accurately describing its behavior, does not help the cat-human relationship any more than it improves our scientific understanding of its personality. But if you fear that your cat has serious behavioral problems, deviances or maniascontact your veterinarian or a behaviorist who will be able to help you understand and better manage the situation.
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