ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2012) —
Just like humans, domestic cats are often judged by their color, and the media
and folklore help perpetuate these stereotypes. Take the snobbish, aloof, white
kitty who promotes Fancy Feast cat food, and spooky images of black cats, which
can be associated with bad luck and witches, especially around Halloween.
Interested in the link between
how cat color influences adoption rates, a University of California, Berkeley,
researcher surveyed 189 people with experience of cats as pets and found that
they were more likely to assign positive personality traits to orange cats and
less favorable ones to white and tortoiseshell ones. Orange cats were largely
regarded as friendly, white cats as aloof and tortoiseshell cats as intolerant.
The results, published this
week in the online issue of Anthrozoos, the official journal of the International
Society for Anthrozoology, are noteworthy because feline typecasting can have a
negative impact on adoption rates at animal shelters, the study suggests.
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