From Eleanor Abernathy on The Simpsons to Angela Martin on The US Office, popular culture likes to portray “crazy cat ladies” as neurotic loners.
Although the archetype is sometimes considered a myth, new research suggests there may be some truth to it.
Researchers in Australia have found that cat owners – both female and male – tend to be more neurotic than dog owners.
It is unclear whether people become neurotic from owning a cat, or whether neurotic people are more likely to buy a cat.
The research shows that dog owners are more resilient, meaning they are better able to cope and adapt to difficult situations.
Personality differences have been consistently demonstrated between ‘dog people’ and ‘cat people’ (file photo)
Probably the most famous “crazy cat lady” in popular culture is Eleanor Abernathy on The Simpsons (pictured)
The research was conducted by Jessica Oliva and Leah Michelle Baines, two psychologists from James Cook University in Queensland, Australia.
Although they did not specifically investigate the phenomenon of the “crazy cat lady,” their findings support its existence.
“Cat ownership positively predicted neuroticism,” they report in their article, published in the journal Anthrozoos.
‘The type of people who like to have a dog are also the type of people who can more easily ‘recover’ from stressful situations.
‘Conversely, people who like cats may be more susceptible to the negative effects of stress.’
For the study, researchers interviewed 321 Australian adults who owned dogs, cats or neither.
Participants who owned both types of pets had to select themselves into the ‘dog owner’ or ‘cat owner’ category, based on which animal they were closest to or spent the most time with (60 percent chose dogs).
The photo shows Angela Martin (played by actress Angela Kinsey) in The US Office – an uptight head of the accounting department who loves cats
Personality traits including extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and resilience were measured in all participants.
The results showed that dog owners showed higher levels of resilience, while cat owners showed higher levels of neuroticism, after controlling for age and gender.
“Contrary to our expectations, no other personality differences were found between pet owners,” the duo said.
Interestingly, cat-owning women also scored higher on neuroticism than cat-owning men, supporting the “crazy cat lady” archetype.
However, the association between cat ownership and a neurotic personality is not unique to women, but it is stronger.
The findings thus suggest that ‘crazy cat gentleman’ is also a phenomenon.
Although the reason for the findings is not entirely clear, it is possible that introverted or neurotic people genetically prefer a cat, while more resilient people get a dog.
Women who own cats scored higher on neuroticism than men who own cats, supporting the ‘crazy cat lady’ archetype (archive photo)
“There is evidence to support the idea that genes determine who owns a particular species,” Dr. Oliva said.
Another possibility is that people become more neurotic from having a cat than from having a dog.
For example, because dogs love to go for walks, having a dog makes them more likely to get out of the house, which leads to more social interactions and less neuroticism.
Cats, on the other hand, do not require this type of grooming, meaning cat owners may not benefit from this level of interaction.
According to Dr. Oliva, there are repeated personality differences between “dog people” and “cat people.”
‘Owning a dog has been associated with less loneliness in people living alone during periods of prolonged isolation, such as during Covid lockdowns, suggesting that dog owners may have greater resilience,’ the researcher said.