Cat’s Purr Designed to Manipulate

Don’t you love it when a study proves something you already knew? Cats manipulate us with their purrs. Yes, they do.

After you’ve spent a few months around a new feline friend, you can usually start to translate the noises. Sometimes you’ll receive an affectionate greeting, but other sounds could be your feline’s way of trying to wrap you around his little paw.

You can listen to a manipulative purr in this BBC cat-purr video. Researchers from the University of Sussex studied what they called a “soliciting purr.” The researchers believe that attention-seeking cats incorporate a cry that sounds like a human baby’s! They use this purr-cry to get food or attention, especially in the mornings when you’re in bed. Read more at BBC.

My cat walks on top of my clock radio to wake me, but that’s another story. Researchers think that cats can learn to exaggerate the baby cry element of their purrs after it proves effective in getting attention. Smarty cats!

(Image via stock.xchng)