Are you afraid that your feline might be a psychopath? UK researchers have introduced a cat psychopath test.
However, it is worth noting that this does not aim to diagnose your pet but rather help you understand more of its behavior.
Cat Psychopath Test
Cats are known for their independence, moodiness, outgoingness, dominance and more. Some of these feline animals also do unusual things such as clawing a scared mouse or even battling each other halfway up the Christmas tree.
For this reason, several feline owners are categorizing their cats as psychopaths since some of them qualifies the sign of being one.
In relation to this, there is an actual test that you can take online to know if your cat has the said characteristics, per Cnet. The said test is a scientific survey that measures 46 cat behaviors which will help you understand the level of your cat's psychopathy.
The cat psychopath test was created by researchers at the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom, and it was published in the Journal of Research in Personality this month.
To give much clarity, the purpose of the survey is not to diagnose the cat, but to learn how their personality influences their interaction towards their owner.
Researchers did a survey to 549 cat owners concerning their pets' aggressiveness, meanness and restriction levels. Additionally, these are the three characteristics that make up the human psychopathic personality model.
"It is likely that all cats have an element of psychopathy as it would have once been helpful for their ancestors in terms of acquiring resources, for example food, territory and mating opportunities," lead researcher Rebecca Evans told the Metro newspaper.
The said cat psychopath test is called the CAT-Tri+.
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Is Your Cat a Psychopath?
Lead researcher Rebecca Evans added that they believe that psychopathy, like any other personality attribute, exists on a scale, with some cats scoring higher than others.
With regards to the said assertions, some of them are the following.
- My cat goes to risky locations such as competitor cat's gardens and extremely high spots.
- My cat likes to sit on high areas such as the top of the sofa or the top of the stairs.
- My cat wanders far from home.
- My cat is the king of the neighborhood cats such as chasing them and picking fights with them.
- For no apparent reason, my cat makes loud vocalizations.
The said cat personality test is accessible here.
In terms of its scoring, the questionnaire consists of five components: bold, disinhibited, mean, pet-unfriendly and human-unfriendly. Each item is rated on a scale of one to five, with one indicating that it does not adequately characterize the cat while five indicating that it does.
When an answer of "not relevant" is given, the associated item should be removed from the scoring process so that the response does not count to the score and the overall number of items is reduced.
On the other hand, the researchers also expect that using the questionnaire will be a way to be able to strengthen cat-owner connections. Aside from this, it also aims to reduce the number of pets who are surrendered to shelters or euthanized.
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