Owners who spent more time physically close to their cats tended to report more positive moods, according to a new study by a Kyoto University-led team. The study, published in the journal iScience, came amid a common claim that caring for a feline friend has positive effects on human health and well-being while other studies reporting possible negative effects of cat ownership. This led a team of researchers at Kyoto University to question the idea that simply owning a cat provides intrinsic health benefits. Instead, they wondered whether any benefits or drawbacks to keeping a cat come from the quality of the relationship between the human and cat, particularly how owners interact with their cats in everyday life. To investigate, the team conducted a one-month study of the daily lives of a group of 29 cats and their 19 owners, recruited through flyers and social media. In each household, the researchers conducted hormonal analysis through urine samples, attached small Bluetooth Low Energy beacons to the cats' collars to measure daily physical proximity, assessed the owners' moods through questionnaires and observed the cats' behavior toward their owners and unfamiliar people. The results revealed a hormonal connection between cats and their owners involving oxytocin and cortisol, hormones that are associated with social relationships and stress, respectively. The team observed a positive correlation between the urinary concentrations of oxytocin in cats and their owners, with higher oxytocin levels in cats linked to lower cortisol levels and fewer negative feelings in their owners. In fact, the cats' oxytocin levels were more closely associated with their owners' negative mood states than the owners' own oxytocin levels were. Ultimately, the researchers observed that positive mood states in owners were not connected to how long they had had their cats, but rather to the overall physical proximity between owners and their cats. In other words, owners' positive feelings seem to be most strongly associated with how much time they spend close to their cats in everyday life. “I think many cat owners are familiar with the sense of comfort and peace they feel when their cat climbs onto their lap seeking affection, they start to pet it, and the cat begins purring contentedly,” said the study’s corresponding author Saho Takagi. “Our findings suggest that this feeling may be partly reflected in the hormonal connection between cats and their owners, particularly through oxytocin, a hormone involved in the formation of parent-child bonds and social relationships,” he added. This study helps to explain why previous inquiries into the health benefits of cat ownership have produced inconsistent results by demonstrating that the quality of the relationship between human and cat matters more than simply owning a cat. However, these findings show only associations, so any causation is still unclear. In the future, the team hopes to explore more deeply how cats and humans influence each other through their everyday interactions.
