Cat owners, how do you view your kitty?
Answers will vary, but most will probably acknowledge that while their cat can be a sweetheart, it's also a psychopathic murder machine.
Now, research finally seems to support what cat people have known all along: cats are psychopaths.
The study, published by a team from the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University took an interesting approach: asking pet owners about their pets, and attempting to attribute human standards of psychopathy to said pets.
Putting aside the obvious answer of "most of the things they do," researchers asked a comprehensive series of 549 questions. Placing cats on a human scale of psychopathy is hardly an exact science, but the study attempted to bridge this gap.
The survey had questions asking cat owners if they agreed or disagreed with statements like, "My cat vocalises loudly for no apparent reason," "My cat runs around the house for no apparent reason," and "My cat does not appear to act guilty after misbehaving."
This basically breaks things down into three categories for humans: boldness, meanness and disinhibition.
Needless to say, these categories can be applied to cats as well, but researchers also created new categories just for the felines: human-unfriendliness and pet-unfriendliness.
Because of the new cat-specific categories, researchers gave their method of measuring psychopathy in cats a new title: the Cat Triarchic Plus, or CAT-Tri+. You can actually view the survey and answer its questions right here.
If you were thinking that the researchers just didn't understand that this is the way cats are, they're all cat people.
"My personal inspiration is my cat Axel, a fluffy and greedy little creature," explained Minna Lyons, one of the authors.
Aside from the psychopathy quiz, some cats were studied in a more in-depth way. Minna Lyons' cat Axel wore activity trackers to find out what he did with his day. Lyons said he was bold and wouldn't hesitate to go into random houses and garages to search for food.
Cats are excellent hunters, who rely on their instincts and speed to prey on a wide variety of creatures, big and small. It's key to their survival. They can also hold down large territories.
Well, as it turns out, the very instincts that make cats such successful creatures in the wild turns them into weird little monsters when they're cooped up in a house.
By human standards, many of those traits make them psychopaths.
