Cats Have 276 Facial Expressions
In a new study published in the journal Behavioural Processes, researchers identified a whopping 276 different facial expressions cats make when interacting with one another. “Cats are very expressive animals,” says study co-author Brittany Florkiewicz, PhD, an evolutionary psychologist at Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas. “People who’ve had cats probably won’t be surprised by that, but what is surprising is the number of expressions they make, especially when you compare it to other species. Gibbons, for example, have only 80, while chimpanzees have more than 300. So, cats have a very diverse and rich repertoire of facial expressions.”
The study focused on cat-cat interactions, not cat-human interactions. Florkiewicz and her co-author, Lauren Scott, studied 53 adult cats living at CatCafé Lounge in Los Angeles from August 2021 to June 2022, collecting video of cat interactions using a handheld camcorder. She ended up with 194 minutes of facial-expression information.
What did the study reveal about cats’ facial expressions?
Florkiewicz and Scott identified 26 distinct subtle and overt facial-muscle movements, or “action units” (Aus) that were used to produce a total of 276 combinations. Of the 276 expressions, 45.7% were seen in a friendly context, like when a cat was inviting another cat to play or groom, and 37% were seen when the cats seemed less friendly with one another, often accompanying aggressive or defensive behavior. (Around 17.4 % of the expressions were observed in both friendly and unfriendly contexts.)
The finding suggests that domestication probably played a part in helping cats develop their wide range of expressions. “Domesticated cats are very socially flexible compared to wild cats, who are very solitary,” says Florkiewicz. “Having a wide range of facial expressions was probably great for navigating different kinds of social interactions.”
Cynthia Sanz Carstens Updated: Nov. 18, 2023