This series traces a full arc. You might guess that someone who has included a photo of themselves hiking is an outdoorsy type of person. But as scientists who study human-animal interactions , we wanted to know what this meant for pet owners — in particular, male cat owners. If you are a guy who owns a cat, what kind of effect does it have on suitors if you post a picture posing with your favourite feline?
Prior studies suggested that women do judge a potential male partner based on whether he has pets. While they favour men with dogs, the results showed that they also give men with cats an edge over non-pet owners.
Because of this, we reasoned that men pictured with cats would probably be viewed as more attractive and desirable than men who did not pose with any animals. In our study , we recruited 1, heterosexual American women from 18 to 24 years old to take a short anonymous online survey. In the survey, we presented them with photos of one of two young white men in their early 20s either posing alone or with a cat. Each participant only rated one man, with and without a cat.
Each time the participants saw a photo, we asked them to rate the man pictured on several personality attributes, including his masculinity, femininity and dateability. Most of the women found the men holding cats to be less dateable. This result surprised us since previous studies had shown that women found men with pets to have higher potential as partners.
They also thought the men holding cats were less extroverted and more neurotic, agreeable and open. Importantly, they saw these men as less masculine, too. Prior research suggests that women often seek masculine men — both in terms of physical appearance and behaviours.
