Cats Meow Louder at Men (and Honestly, We Don’t Blame Them), New Study Finds

If you’re a cat parent, you’re probably well-acquainted with your cat’s range of meows. There are meows that mean “Feed me — now!” and meows that mean “Hello! Welcome home!” and meows that mean “I absolutely do not like this person; please remove them from my presence immediately.” While the exact intonation and cadence of each meow depends on the cat in question and what they’re trying to communicate, a new study proves one consistency: Cats are louder when talking to men. Why? Researchers propose it’s because men just don’t listen.

A study from the University of Ankara in Turkey recently published in Ethology surveyed the behaviors of 31 cats. The researchers, led by Yasemin Salgırlı Demirbaş, focused on how the cats greeted their caretakers. Each caretaker wore a small camera on their chest, which recorded the first few minutes after they returned home from work or school. All of the caretakers in the study had been caring for their cats for at least six months and all cats involved were at least eight months old. 

The research also tracked food-related behaviors, such as cats running to their bowls or eating, and found that these actions were not related to the social greetings that the cats displayed. In other words, the cats’ greeting behavior didn’t have anything to do with how hungry they were — they just wanted to greet their parents after time apart. 

“Greeting behavior is a key component of social behavior in animals, which serves a variety of purposes such as conveying intent and adjusting social relationships by reducing tension and reinforcing social bonds,” Demirbaş wrote.

After analyzing the footage and mapping out different behavioral patterns, which included actions like yawning, stretching, and crouching, the researchers noticed one key difference in how the cats interacted with their caregivers. The cats were much louder when greeting men, meowing more to grab their attention. Nothing else about their behavior was different — just the meowing.

Even after accounting for other variables like the cat’s breed, sex, and number of companion cats in the household, it was clear that caregiver sex was the biggest factor. The researchers theorize that this could be because female caregivers are more vocal with their cats and better at picking up on more subtle feline body language and vocalizations.

“It is therefore possible that male caregivers require more explicit vocalizations to notice and respond to the needs of their cats, which in turn reinforces cats’ tendency to use more directed and frequent vocal behavior to attract their attention,” the paper states. In everyday terms: Men aren’t good enough at listening or paying attention, and cats have to compensate.

The researchers acknowledge that the scope of the study is limited. For one, only Turkish people and cats were observed; cultural differences might influence how humans interact with their kitties and vice-versa. Additionally, the study was unable to control for the exact length of time each pet parent was away from their cat prior to returning home.

Limitations aside, the study did prove a valuable finding: Cats customize their communications methods based on the individual. They’re constantly adapting the best way to communicate with us and learning what we respond to. They want to talk to us! And dang it, if they aren’t going to make the most oblivious dudebros out there listen.