Cats Have Personality Traits Similar to Humans

Cats share three out of five personality traits with humans.

Researchers in Australia have been studying feline personality traits by having their owners fill out 52-question surveys online. A sophisticated computer program has been analyzing the data, and it has come up with 5 general cat personalities.

This is especially interesting because many psychologists believe that human personalities fall into 5 categories, as well. In fact, the Australian researchers feel that 3 out of 5 of the discovered cat personalities overlap with the accepted human personalities.

The 5 Human Personality Traits

The 5 generally accepted human personality traits are as follows:

A person can fall anywhere along a scale on each of these traits: you may be very extraverted or not extraverted at all, for example, or you may be somewhere in the middle.

You can take a short quiz to find out where you fall within the scales of the above traits here: http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/.

The Australian researchers have found that there are not really any statistical differences in the personalities of indoor vs. outdoor cats other than indoor cats tend to score a bit higher on "friendliness." They've suggested that this indicates that keeping your cat indoors is not harmful to his personality.

The 5 General Feline Personality Traits

The Australian study has uncovered 5 basic personality traits that cats have. As with the human personality traits, cats can fall anywhere along the scale from "very" to "not at all" on each of the following traits:

It's been quite interesting to researchers to find that cats share 3 out of 5 personality traits with humans. They suggest that taking the time to understand where you and your cat fall along these scales may help you create strategies to connect better with your feline friend.

You May Also Like These Articles:

Will My Cat Love Me Less If I Feed Her Less?

Cat Kneading: Why Do Cats Do It and What Do People Call It?

Are You Shortening Your Cat's Life? - Slideshow

Why Does My Cat Eat Plastic?

Why Do Cats Hate Water?

What Is a Group of Cats Called? - Slideshow

Why Do Cats Chatter at Birds?

Disclaimer: This website is not intended to replace professional consultation, diagnosis, or treatment by a licensed veterinarian. If you require any veterinary related advice, contact your veterinarian promptly. Information at CatHealth.com is exclusively of a general reference nature. Do not disregard veterinary advice or delay treatment as a result of accessing information at this site. Just Answer is an external service not affiliated with CatHealth.com.