Don’t Be So Fast to Judge a Cat By Its Color, Study Warns

Just like humans, domestic cats are often judged by their color, and the media and folklore help perpetuate these stereotypes. … 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. … 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.… Other coauthors of the study are Jacqueline Munera at the New College of Florida and Gretchen Reevy at the California State University, East Bay.