Scientists have found that popular culture portrays cats as cold and angry, which creates a negative perception of these animals. Study reported daily mail.
Experts from Evolution analyzed 50 popular cats from movies that spend a lot of screen time. They used the websites IMDB, Wikipedia and Cinema Cats to find the 100 most popular cat characters in movies and looked at the top 50 characters with the most screen time. It turned out that 60 percent of them were portrayed as “bad guys.” While some cats may have played the role of gentle friends, the vast majority are portrayed as troublemakers.
According to the research, Siamese and Persian cats are the most negatively perceived breeds. Persian cats include Duchess, the spoiled and initially rude cat from the movie Babe, about a pig learning to herd sheep. The original Disney movie Lady and the Tramp also features a pair of sinister Siamese cats. Almost half of the cats portrayed negatively in movies and television were black or gray; for example, Salem, the cat-turned-witch from Sabrina the Teenage Witch. However, ginger cats, such as the cat in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, were viewed in a positive light. The study also found that many anti-hero cats look even worse on screen because they are pitted against heroic, gentle dogs in movies.
Veterinarians believe that this stereotypical attitude towards cats may have arisen because cats do not show obvious emotions and provide instant gratification like dogs and are therefore perceived as hostile.
“Our tendency to see dogs as heroes and cats as demons stems from our natural response to the more obvious affection that dogs show us. Scientists stated that because cats are not as easy to control and manipulate as dogs, people feel less attached and think more negatively about cats.
An example is dogs hissing or attacking if they get too close to a cat. While this may make people think that the dog is good-natured and the cat is aggressive, the cat may actually be afraid of the approaching dog and cause the conflict to escalate by making warning sounds that the dog ignores.
Previously veterinarians named Problematic cat breeds that are often abandoned by their owners.