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Investigation of humans individual differences as predictors of their animal interaction styles, focused on the domestic cat

Finka, Lauren R.; Ripari, Lucia; Quinlan, Lindsey; Haywood, Camilla; Puzzo, Jo; Jordan, Amelia; Tsui, Jaclyn; Foreman-Worsley, Rachel; Dixon, Laura; Brennan, Marnie L.

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Authors

Lauren R. Finka

Lucia Ripari

Lindsey Quinlan

Camilla Haywood

Jo Puzzo

Amelia Jordan

Jaclyn Tsui

Rachel Foreman-Worsley

Laura Dixon



Abstract

Humans' individual differences including their demographics, personality, attitudes and experiences are often associated with important outcomes for the animals they interact with. This is pertinent to companion animals such as cats and dogs, given their social and emotional importance to humans and degree of integration into human society. However, the mechanistic underpinnings and causal relationships that characterise links between human individual differences and companion animal behaviour and wellbeing are not well understood. In this exploratory investigation, we firstly quantified the underlying structure of, and variation in, human's styles of behaviour during typical human-cat interactions (HCI), focusing on aspects of handling and interaction known to be preferred by cats (i.e. 'best practice'), and their variation. We then explored the potential significance of various human individual differences as predictors of these HCI styles. Seven separate HCI styles were identified via Principal Component Analysis (PCA) from averaged observations for 119 participants, interacting with sociable domestic cats within a rehoming context. Using General Linear Models (GLMs) and an Information Theoretic (IT) approach, we found these HCI PC components were weakly to strongly predicted by factors including cat-ownership history, participant personality (measured via the Big Five Inventory, or BFI), age, work experience with animals and participants' subjective ratings of their cat behaviour knowledge. Paradoxically, greater cat ownership experiences and self-assessed cat knowledge were not positively associated with 'best practice' styles of HCI, but were instead generally predictive of HCI styles known to be less preferred by cats, as was greater participant age and Neuroticism. These findings have important implications regarding the quality of human-companion animal relationships and dyadic compatibility, in addition to the role of educational interventions and their targeting for optimal efficacy. In the context of animal adoption, these results strengthen the (limited) evidence base for decision making associated with cat-adopter screening and matching. In particular, our results suggest that greater cat ownership experiences and self-reports of cat knowledge might not necessarily convey advantages for cats in the context of HCI.

Citation

Finka, L. R., Ripari, L., Quinlan, L., Haywood, C., Puzzo, J., Jordan, A., …Brennan, M. L. (2022). Investigation of humans individual differences as predictors of their animal interaction styles, focused on the domestic cat. Scientific Reports, 12(1), Article 12128. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15194-7

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jun 20, 2022
Online Publication Date Jul 15, 2022
Publication Date Jul 15, 2022
Deposit Date Nov 25, 2022
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Scientific Reports
Electronic ISSN 2045-2322
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 12
Issue 1
Article Number 12128
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15194-7
Keywords Animals, Dogs, Cats, Humans, Behavior, Animal, Emotions, Personality, Individuality, Ownership
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/10357533
Publisher URL https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-15194-7
PMID 35840600

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