Cats Do Control Humans, Study Finds

 

"If you've ever wondered who's in control, you or your cat, a new study points to the obvious. It's your cat."

"Household cats exercise this control with a certain type of urgent-sounding, high-pitched meow, according to the findings."

"This meow is actually a purr mixed with a high-pitched cry. While people usually think of cat purring as a sign of happiness, some cats make this purr-cry sound when they want to be fed. The study showed that humans find these mixed calls annoying and difficult to ignore."

"'The embedding of a cry within a call that we normally associate with contentment is quite a subtle means of eliciting a response,' said Karen McComb of the University of Sussex. 'Solicitation purring is probably more acceptable to humans than overt meowing, which is likely to get cats ejected from the bedroom.'"

livescience.com