猫真的很喜欢它们的主人

猫真的很喜欢它们的主人

Sometimes people assume that if you want a reciprocal, affectionate relationship with a furry friend, you should get a dog. If you're fine with being the only one dishing out the love, then a cat — known to be more socially reserved — might be a good choice.

有时候人们会认为，如果你想和毛茸茸的朋友建立一种互惠、亲密的关系，你应该养一只狗。如果你觉得自己是唯一一个表达爱意的人没什么问题，那么养一只猫——众所周知，它更善于社交——可能是个不错的选择。

Your cat might be more bonded to you than it seems. (Photo: Africa Studio/Shutterstock)

But a new study suggests that plenty of feline friends form attachments to their people, bonds similar to ones babies and dogs have with the people who care for them.

但一项新的研究表明，许多猫科动物朋友会对他们的主人形成依恋，就像婴儿和狗与照顾它们的人之间的纽带一样。

"In both dogs and cats, attachment to humans may represent an adaptation of the offspring-caretaker bond," lead author Kristyn Vitale, a researcher in the Human-Animal Interaction Lab in Oregon State University, said in a statement.

俄勒冈州立大学人与动物互动实验室的研究员、该研究的主要作者Kristyn Vitale在一份声明中说:“无论是猫还是狗，对人类的依恋都可能代表着对后代和看护者之间关系的适应。”

"Attachment is a biologically relevant behavior. Our study indicates that when cats live in a state of dependency with a human, that attachment behavior is flexible and the majority of cats use humans as a source of comfort."

“依恋是一种生物学上相关的行为。我们的研究表明，当猫生活在与人类的依赖状态时，这种依恋行为是灵活的，大多数猫把人类作为安慰的来源。”

Testing bonds

测试联系

A cat displays secure attachment behavior with researcher Kristyn Vitale in the Human-Animal Interaction Lab at Oregon State University. (Photo: Oregon State University)

For the study, which was published in the journal Current Biology, researchers conducted a simple attachment test, similar to those given to dogs and infants. First, they had kittens hang out in an unfamiliar room with their owners for two minutes. Then the owners left for two minutes and returned to the room for two minutes.

这项研究发表在《当代生物学》(Current Biology)杂志上，研究人员对狗和婴儿进行了一项简单的依恋测试。首先，他们让小猫和主人在一个陌生的房间里呆上两分钟。然后主人离开了两分钟，又回到房间里呆了两分钟。

The kittens responded by either greeting the person and then continuing to explore the room, staying away from the person, or clinging to them. Researchers said cats with secure attachments to their people were less stressed and spent their time divided between their surroundings and their humans. Those with insecure attachments showed more signs of stress by twitching their tails and either jumping in their person's lap and staying there or ignoring them completely.

小猫们的反应要么是向这个人打招呼，然后继续探索这个房间，要么远离这个人，要么紧紧地抱住他们。研究人员称，与主人有安全依恋关系的猫压力较小，它们的时间被分散在周围环境和主人之间。那些有不安全依恋的人表现出更多的压力迹象，他们会扭动尾巴，或者跳到别人的大腿上，待在那里，或者完全无视他们。

Researchers performed the same tests on adult cats and then on the same kittens after a six-week socialization training course.

研究人员对成年猫进行了同样的测试，然后在经过6周的社会化训练课程后，对同样的小猫进行了同样的测试。

They found that about two-thirds of the cats and kittens showed a secure attachment or bond to their owners. Interestingly, this mirrors research that shows how attached dogs and babies are to their caregivers. So cats do bond to their people; they just don't go all bonkers wagging their tails or clinging to human ankles to show their affection.

他们发现，大约三分之二的猫和小猫对它们的主人表现出一种安全的依恋或联系。有趣的是，这反映了研究表明狗和婴儿是多么依恋他们的照顾者。所以猫和它们的主人是有联系的;它们只是不喜欢摇尾巴或者抓着人类的脚踝来表达它们的爱意。

"Cats that are insecure can be likely to run and hide or seem to act aloof," Vitale said. "There's long been a biased way of thinking that all cats behave this way. But the majority of cats use their owner as a source of security. Your cat is depending on you to feel secure when they are stressed out."

维塔莱说:“缺乏安全感的猫很可能会逃跑、躲藏或表现得冷漠。”“长期以来，人们一直有一种偏见，认为所有的猫都会这样做。但是大多数猫把它们的主人作为安全的来源。你的猫在压力大的时候会依靠你来获得安全感。”