Women find men with cats less attractive, says study

Pets apparently play an important role in determining women’s mate choices as well as dating preferences, so you may want to keep your cat out of your dating profile if you wish to increase your chances of getting right-swiped by women.

A recent study by Colorado State University suggests that women find men with cats less attractive.

In an online survey, women responded to one set of photos of men alone and another set of the same men holding cats. They also rated the men on measures of masculinity and personality.

The researchers held that the participating women viewed men who posed with cats as “less masculine; more neurotic, agreeable, and open; and less dateable”.

Although previous research shows that women find pet owners more attractive and dateable than non-pet owners, the result of the Colorado State University study proves that it also depends on whether the woman self-identifies as a dog person or a cat person.

The photos shown to the women had two men, both of them rated by different sets of women. A total of 708 women participated in the survey for the first subject, and a different set of 680 women participated in the survey for the second subject. All the respondents were in between the age of 18 and 24 years.

When the respondents saw the cat-free picture of one of the subjects, 38 per cent of them said they were likely or very likely to casually date him, while 37 per cent said they would consider a serious relationship with him.

But when shown a picture of the same man holding a cat, the numbers dropped to 33 per cent for each category. The percentage of women saying that they would never be interested in dating the subject also rose from nine per cent to 14 per cent.

When pictured with the cat, 45 per cent of the women said they would be unlikely or certainly not be interested in dating the subject casually. But the percentage dropped to 40 when he was alone.

“Yet, it is important to note that these findings were influenced by whether the female viewer self-identified as a ‘dog’ or ‘cat’ person, suggesting that American culture has distinguished ‘cat men’ as less masculine, perhaps creating a cultural preference for ‘dog men’ among most heterosexual women in the studied age group,” the study mentioned.

Citing previous research work, it added that women prefer men with ‘good genes’, someone with more masculine traits and that “clearly, the presence of a cat diminishes that perception.”

It is important to note that a different study reported by CNN had revealed last year that “Cat-owners did not differ from others on self-reported symptoms of depression, anxiety or their experiences in close relationships.”