Scientists studied thousands of cats and identified 7 distinct personality traits

刘明杰

Ask any cat person to describe their feline friend，and they’ll likely affectionately say“jerkface”. Cat people also know，however，that each little fuzzy jerkface is its very own idiosyncratic self.

According to new research，each cat’s personality and behavior can be defined using a combination of just seven traits.

The research was undertaken by way of a 138-question survey，posted on animal welfare website Petsofi，and filled out by the cats’owners. This is because cats can behave very differently in a laboratory environment than the way they behave at home，so observing them in an experiment could yield inaccurate results.

The questionnaire asked people to enter，among other things，their cat’s sex，age，breed，coat color，and main activity. The humans were also asked to fill out the questionnaire a second time after an interval had passed. This allowed the researchers to gauge the accuracy of the reports by comparing the two surveys.

The final sample consisted of 4，316 cats. From these，the researchers were able to narrow cat traits down to five personality traits and two behavioral traits.

1.Activity/playfulness 2.Fearfulness 3.Aggression towards humans 4.Sociability towards humans 5.Sociability towards cats 6.Litterbox issues（such as refusing to use the litterbox，or using it poorly）7.Excessive grooming

Perhaps unsurprisingly，the results also revealed that different breeds skew towards different personality traits.

“The most fearful breed was the Russian Blue，while the Abyssinian was the least fearful，”says veterinary scientist Hannes Lohi of the University of Helsinki.

“The Bengal was the most active breed，while the Persian and Exotic were the most passive. The breeds exhibiting the most excessive grooming were the Siamese and Balinese，while the Turkish Van breed scored considerably higher in aggression towards humans and lower in sociability towards cats.”

如果让貓主人描述自家的猫，他们可能会亲昵地称之为“小讨厌”。但是，猫主人也知道，每只毛茸茸的小讨厌猫都有自己的个性。

新研究指出，按照个性和行为特征可以把猫分为7种类型。

研究人员通过一份138道题的问卷展开调查，这份问卷发布在动物福利网站Petsofi上并由猫主人来填写。因为猫在实验室环境中和在家中的行为方式差异很大，所以在实验室中观察猫可能会得出不准确的结果。

问卷上要求填写猫的性别、年龄、品种、毛色和主要活动等信息。研究人员隔了一段时间后请猫主人再次填写了同样的问卷。这让研究人员可以通过比较两次调查结果来判断报告的准确度。

最终样本涵盖了4316只猫。通过这些样本，研究人员得以将猫的性格类型缩减至7种——5种个性特征和2种行为特征。这些特征分别是：

1.活泼好动型2.胆小懦弱型3.敌视人类型4.与人交好型5.与猫交好型6.邋遢型（比如不愿在猫砂盆里排便，或将排泄物弄得到处都是）7.臭美型

结果还揭示，不同品种的猫倾向于拥有不同的性格特征，这也许并不令人意外。

赫尔辛基大学的兽医学家汉内斯·洛希说：“最胆小的猫咪品种是俄罗斯蓝猫，而阿比西尼亚猫是胆子最大的。”

“孟加拉豹猫是最好动的猫，而波斯猫和异国猫是最懒得动的。最臭美的猫是暹罗猫和巴厘猫。土耳其梵猫非常敌视人类，对猫也不友好。”