By Ben Sedgewick ’21
To many cat owners, they have a good idea of how their cat feels through regular behavior. However, just like humans, domestic cats are able to communicate emotion through facial expression. Varied combinations of facial expressions and behaviors result in communication through emotion. While many cat owners believe they can understand their cat feels on a personal level, researchers have gone further in depth to better understand how cats may express emotion through their faces and behavior and depict them to their owners.
Domesticated cats (Felis catus) are well known and loved by cat owners, and thus sparked the pursuit to best understand their emotional expressions. Valarie Bennet looked into numerous studies to help give her a better understanding behavior and expression in cats. Rather than solely conducting qualitative anecdotal observations, three statistical clusterings of behaviors and facial expressions were created to indicate various emotions among domestic cats (Bennett et al. 2017). A facial ethogram and coding system (CatFACS) had laid out differences in facial expressions in terms of ‘offensive’ and ‘defensive’. After taking 275 video recordings and analyzing multiple variables to better understand feline emotional and physical expression, facial and behavioral observations determined one cluster of behaviors to evoke fear, the second cluster as frustration, and the last cluster determined as a neutral or relaxed state (Bennet et al. 2017). While human interaction may alter how cats behave, their general emotional response remains consistent with the three determined clusters.
Differing from a study by Gourkow et al., Bennet et al. focused on how cats reacted with and without the presence of humans. Figure 1 illustrates variables of the face that presents emotion when combined with situational behavior. Bennet et al. determined the largest cluster of fear by grouping together “hissing, nose-licking, dropping of the jaw, the raising of the upper lip, nose wrinkling, lower lip depression, parting of the lips, mouth stretching, vocalization and showing of the tongue” (Bennet et al. 2017). However, this is only during human interaction. In the absence of humans, traits of the eyes focusing upward, ears flattening, and lip corners retracting are replaced by half blinking, ears slightly rotated and back, whiskers raised, and growling (Bennet et al. 2017). As for the second cluster, ear flattening is the most notable trait for expressing frustration, regardless of the presence of human interaction. Such expressed frustration may be seen due to cats not being able to feel safe and secure (Bennet et al. 2017). The third cluster is best described as when a cat is at rest, with a relaxed and neutral expression. Bennet et al. describes the expression as with ears forward and adducted, with laterality to the eyes and head posture when cats have increased attention in a friendly manner (Bennet et al. 2017). The cat depicted in Figure 1 is at a neutral position, most resembling expression from the third cluster of a relaxed state (Gourkow et al. 2014).
Even with an incredibly wide range of feline faces and behaviors, Bennet et al.’s study was able to code and classify different expressions regardless of breed. While previous studies were able to determine discrepancies in specific “offensive and defensive moods,” this study added to previous guides by including observations on movements in the eyes, lips, and tongue (Bennet et al. 2017). Their findings allow for more areas of research in the future, potentially in the creation of more subgroups within the three identified clusters.
Bennett, Valerie, et al. “Facial Correlates of Emotional Behaviour in the Domestic Cat (Felis Catus).” Behavioural Processes, vol. 141, 15 Mar. 2017, pp. 342–350., doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2017.03.011.
Gourkow, Nadine, et al. “Associations of Behaviour with Secretory Immunoglobulin A and Cortisol in Domestic Cats during Their First Week in an Animal Shelter.” Applied Animal Behaviour Science, vol. 150, 2014, pp. 55–64., doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2013.11.006.
