The color of cats indicates their “personality”: myth or reality?

It is often said that cat color This is a good indicator of your personality. First of all, there is quite unanimous opinion regarding oranges, which are supposedly more friendly, but at the same time more active and mischievous. All this attracts the attention of scientists for two reasons. On the one hand, to have a more specific idea of ​​the genetics of these animals. And on the other hand, because it might help shelter workers to choose the best friends for your cats, taking into account another factor regarding their personality.

For this reason, there are many scientific studies that try to find out if there is a connection between the color of cats and their personality. myth or reality. It should be noted that most studies of this type are based on self-reported data from owners of these pets. This can lead to quite a large confirmation bias if these people get carried away stereotypes.

That’s why, in addition to statistical research based on surveys, the ones that analyze the genetics of cats are very interesting. Especially ones that focus on orange felines, since they seem to create the most consensus regarding their personality.

The Personality Behind Cat Colors

Overall, the consensus resulting from these survey-based questions indicates that gray and white cats love shyness already oranges are friendlier. Moreover, cats three colors They are usually described as more intolerant of people and other cats.

This, as we have already seen, can be the result Offset confirmation or one self-fulfilling prophecy. Both concepts are used in psychology to describe our perception of a specific idea. In the case of confirmation bias, this refers to the fact that we will only pay attention to an issue when it matches our preconceived idea about it. For example, it is often said that sometimes when you are thinking about a person, your phone suddenly rings and it is him, even if you have not seen him for a long time. This may happen to us once, but there will also be millions of times when we think about someone and the phone doesn’t ring. this million times It will go unnoticed for us. but we will pay close attention to the only instance in which this previous idea came to fruition.

In terms of self-fulfilling prophecy, something similar happens. Sometimes it happens that we think so much about something that We make sure it is so. For example, if we constantly think that we will fail an exam, perhaps our mind will play tricks on us and we will do worse than we otherwise would. We failed, not because there was a prophecy, but because we couldn’t focus on doing better.

What does all this have to do with the color of cats? In fact, there is a certain connection. Someone may have an orange cat, sometimes friendly but sometimes shy. Since they have a reputation for being friendly, this person will focus mainly on moments when a cat is friendlier and that’s what you answer in surveys. On the other hand, there are studies that show that people can influence the personality of their cats. This will lead to the fact that if we predisposed For a cat to have a shape that matches its color, we end up unknowingly causing it.

Physiological and genetic problems

The color of cats, like the color of human skin and fur, depends on the presence of certain pigments in your cells. There are several of them, but the most numerous is usually melanin.

The pathway for the synthesis of this pigment, produced in cat cells, contains some steps in common with that which leads to the synthesis of neurotransmitters such as dopamine. For this reason, it is believed that darker cats with more melanin may also be associated with more dopamine. This causes them to become kinder, but only up to a point, as too much of this neurotransmitter can change behavior.

On the other hand, the two cats whose color is most strongly associated with personality type have a genetic trait. orange cats men usually and tricolors practically always women.

Cat color in genes

To understand why color is so gender dependent, we need to understand how colors are inherited. In fact, these animals have only three possible colors: black, white and orange. Everything else is a combination of both.

Black and orange are associated with X chromosome while white is not associated with gender. It is located in gene whiteoutside the sex chromosomes.

Therefore, the female can be tricolored, but the male cannot. This is due to the fact that a female can have an orange X, a black X and, in addition, a white one on a non-sex chromosome. Let’s remember thissex chromosomes women – XX. On the other hand, since males are XY, at most they can be orange and white, black and white, or all orange, black, or white.

As for the color orange, for a woman to be orange, it must happen that both her X chromosomes are orange. Males have one orange color. There are already enough of them.

Although more research is needed on this issue, there are studies that have concluded that men more friendly. So it makes sense that orange cats have such personality. On the other hand, women will more timid and gloomytherefore, this is exactly the kind of personality that calico cats have.

In short, nothing is clear, but there is some scientific evidence that the connection between a cat’s color and personality may not be a myth. One thing is clear: regardless of skin color, everyone wants to dominate the world, so it will be much better if we always stand on their side.