ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Ethol.
Sec. Social Behavior and Communication
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fetho.2025.1675587
This article is part of the Research TopicEmotions, Communication, and Cognition in CatsView all articles
Do You Speak Cat? Assessing the Impact of a Training Video on Human Recognition of Cat Emotions and Behaviors During Play Interactions
Provisionally accepted
- The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
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Human-cat interactions require accurate interpretation of cat behavioral cues to ensure welfare and safety for both species. Misinterpretation of cat communications during play can lead to unwanted interactions that prolong stress for cats and increase the risk of human injury. A survey investigated factors associated with human ability to recognize cat emotional valence during human-cat 'play' interactions and a randomized controlled trial assessed the effectiveness of an educational training video. Participants were randomized to receive either a training video on cat play cues or a control video. A total of 368 adult participants within Australia categorized cat behaviors in videos of human-cat interactions as positive or negative. Novel use of a hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic (HSROC) framework was used to assess participant accuracy. Results showed that participants were generally accurate when recognizing overt cat behaviors but performed at levels approximating chance when recognizing subtle negative cues. Previous vocational cat experience was associated with higher accuracy in negative interactions. Training had a small but significant positive impact on overall performance but paradoxically significantly decreased subtle negative behavior recognition. On average, one in four cats in an overtly negative state were misclassified by participants. Even when valence was correctly recognized, a concerning proportion of participants still selected that they would engage in high-risk interactions with a cat in a negative state. Brief educational interventions may be insufficient or counterproductive for teaching subtle cue recognition in cats, highlighting a need for more comprehensive training approaches that prioritize early stress signals and appropriate response strategies. When promoting human-cat play interactions, care should be taken to ensure guardians are able to recognize when their cat does not wish to play and understand how to correctly respond to cats in a negative state.
Keywords: human-animal interaction, cat behavior, emotion recognition, educationalintervention, Animal Welfare, HSROC analysis, Bite prevention, Interspecies communication
Received: 29 Jul 2025; Accepted: 04 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Henning, Nielsen, Hazel and Atkinson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Julia Sophie Lyn Henning, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
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