‘Cat ladies’ are more likely to be purring with happiness

THE stereotypical “cat lady”, who lives a solitary life obsessing over her pets to the detriment of human relationships, simply does not exist, a study has shown.

Researchers who were looking into whether pet lovers were more likely to pick up distress signals of animals, inadvertently discovered that dog and cat owners do not differ in levels of depression, anxiety or loneliness.

The authors from the University of California, Los Angeles, said there was no evidence that cat lovers were more depressed, anxious and alone, even though they were often ascribed such negative personality traits.

As early as 1872, The New York Times ran an article headlined “Cats and Craziness” in which the editors laid out the erratic personality of the cat lover compared to the more rational dog owner.

Since then, several online surveys have suggested that “cat people” are more neurotic, introverted, less agreeable and less conscientious. In contrast, owning a dog is often viewed as healthy and “beneficial in motivating owners to get extra physical activity”, the report’s authors said.

A study of Facebook updates from users talking about their pets showed that those mentioning cats were more likely to be single, neurotic and introverted, while dog owners had no specific personality traits that set them apart.

However, most of the studies are self-reported and traits were not scientifically measured.

For the study, researchers clinically assessed loneliness, anxiety and depression for 261 dog and cat owners.