猫试图用它们的脸和你说话:研究

猫试图用它们的脸和你说话:研究

Do you speak cat?

你会说猫语吗?

Many might correctly guess that a feline “meow” usually translates to “feed me” in English, and many pet experts agree, believing that their chattiness is actually a means of manipulation — a shameless trick to garner human attention.

许多人可能正确地猜测到，猫的“喵”在英语中通常翻译为“喂我”，许多宠物专家也同意这一说法，他们认为猫的闲聊实际上是一种操纵手段——一种无耻的吸引人类注意力的伎俩。

But their inscrutable dispatches don’t end there: Cryptic kitties also send signals, through purring, hissing and, primarily, facial expressions — which can be difficult for humans to interpret.

但它们神秘的叫声并没有就此结束:神秘的小猫也会发出信号，通过呼噜声、嘶嘶声，主要是面部表情——这些信号很难被人类解读。

“Anyone who writes cats off as sort of moody or distant is probably underestimating them,” said Georgia Mason, a veterinary researcher and author of a study analyzing humans’ ability to understand cats. Her work was published last month in the journal “Animal Welfare.”

“任何认为猫有点喜怒无常或冷漠的人可能都低估了它们，”兽医研究员乔治亚梅森(Georgia Mason)说。她的研究成果上个月发表在《动物福利》杂志上。

She told Vice, “The point is they are signaling. It’s just subtle, and you need expertise — and maybe intuition — to see it.”

她告诉Vice，“关键是他们在发出信号。这很微妙，你需要专业知识——也许还需要直觉——才能发现。”

Mason and her colleagues were interested in gauging how accurately humans pick up on feline emotions written in their fuzzy little faces. Researchers asked more than 6,000 participants to watch 20 context-free cat clips, collected via veterinarians or YouTube, and to decide whether the featured feline was experiencing a negative or positive emotion.

梅森和她的同事们很感兴趣的是，人类如何准确地捕捉到猫在他们毛茸茸的小脸上的情绪。研究人员让6000多名参与者观看了20段由兽医或YouTube网站收集的与背景无关的猫咪视频，然后判断这只猫咪的情绪是积极还是消极。

The average number of correct responses was a disappointing 11.85 out of 20 — about as accurate as if they’d simply ventured a guess for every answer.

平均正确答案的数量是令人失望的11.85分(满分20分)——大约和他们对每个答案都进行猜测一样准确。

Nevertheless, researchers found a few cat whisperers in their participant pool — 15% of whom scored 15 or higher on the test. However, those intuitive folks were more likely to have had veterinary training.

尽管如此，研究人员还是在参与者中发现了一些猫语者——其中15%在测试中得分在15分以上。然而，那些直觉敏锐的人更有可能接受过兽医培训。

Even cat owners had no advantage over the average person. According to Mason, this indicates that our furry friends’ furrowed brows are unique, so that a pet parent who becomes skilled at reading their own fur-baby’s face may not be as spot-on when it comes to understanding other felines.

即使养猫的人也没有比普通人多的优势。根据梅森的说法，这表明我们毛茸茸的朋友们皱起的眉毛是独一无二的，所以当一个宠物父母在理解其他猫科动物时，如果他能熟练地读懂自己的皮毛宝宝的脸，他可能就不能准确无误地理解其他猫科动物了。

Researchers also noted that women performed better than men, and younger participants tended to score higher than middle-aged ones.

研究人员还指出，女性的表现比男性更好，年轻的参与者往往比中年参与者得分更高。

According to Mason, data also show that cat owners are generally less bonded to their pets than dog owners — contributing to the sad outcome that, compared to dogs, cats are more likely to be neglected, abandoned and passed-over for adoption.

据梅森说，数据还显示，养猫的人通常比养狗的人对宠物的感情更少，这导致了可悲的结果，即与狗相比，猫更容易被忽视、遗弃，并被送去领养。

“We’re hoping [to conduct] more research to develop tools to help people read their cat better,” added Mason. “That would make living with a cat more rewarding.”

“我们希望(进行)更多的研究来开发工具，帮助人们更好地阅读他们的猫，”梅森补充说。“这将使与猫一起生活更有意义。”