London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Jul 25, 2025

Cats are just as disloyal as we always suspected, study confirms

Cats are just as disloyal as we always suspected, study confirms

Cats don’t avoid people who upset their owners, proving they’re just as disloyal as we always suspected.

That comes from a new study that found cats – unlike dogs – won’t avoid people that upset their owners.

The new study will be a blow to fur-ious cat lovers across the country, as their feline friends appear to have lived up to their reputation of being aloof and uncaring.

But dog owners can rejoice that man’s best friend still has their back.

Having previously showed that dogs avoided a person who behaved negatively towards their owner, researchers in Japan tried the same experiment with cats to see how they reacted.

For the study, cats watched as their owner tried unsuccessfully to open a transparent container to take out an object, and the requested help from a person sitting nearby.

Some people helped the pet owner and others didn’t, before they all offered food to the animals.

It’s just as we always feared


In the dog experiment, most pooches preferred not to take food from people who didn’t help their owners.

But fickle cats weren’t phased and showed no preference between helpers and passive bystanders, eating food from whomever offered it.

The study’s lead author Hitomi Chijiiwa speculated that dogs might be more loyal because they have evolved through cooperating with humans, such as by hunting.

He wrote: ‘One possible reason for domestic cats showing no sign of a negativity bias might be that cooperation is not salient for this species.

‘Whereas dogs are known to cooperate with humans and conspecifics in a variety of real and experimental contexts, the same is not true of cats.

‘Domestic cats originated from a less gregarious ancestor than did dogs, and they have not been subjected to artificial selection for cooperative work with humans.

‘The capacity for group formation evolved with domestication, leading to the development of an interspecies social repertoire, including establishment of dominance hierarchies.

‘However, group hunting did not evolve in small cats, because the size of their typical prey items remained unchanged even as cat communities grew bigger.’

Don’t be fooled, cats will happily pal around with your enemies too


‘Thus, cats can be considered as at least potentially ‘social’ and flexible in terms of social structure, but without being ‘cooperative,’ except in the context of cooperative offspring-rearing by females.

‘The ability to evaluate others based on indirect experiences might be restricted to more cooperative species.

‘For example, given their cooperation in day-to-day activities including hunting and their ability to solve a cooperative rope-pulling task, lions might be expected to have this ability.’

The study was conducted by boffins from Kyoto University’s psychology department and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Controversial March in Switzerland Features Men Dressed in Nazi Uniforms
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
Thai Civilian Death Toll Rises to 12 in Cambodian Cross-Border Attacks
TSUNAMI: Trump Just Crossed the Rubicon—And There’s No Turning Back
Over 120 Criminal Cases Dismissed in Boston Amid Public Defender Shortage
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
Trump Announces $550 Billion Japanese Investment and New Trade Agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
×