There is a lot of stigma surrounding cat people and dog people, and it seems that people just can’t like both.
There have been many psychology articles that detail the different ways in which dog people and cat people think, and their personality types.
Mainly, dog people are more extroverted whereas cat people are more introverted.
A recent Facebook study has found that stereotype to be, for the most part, true.
Facebook carried out a study on over 160,000 American profiles, using object recognition technology and analysis to determine various differences in the two types of pets and their owners.
The results found that 30% of the profiles that shared pictures of cats were single, whereas only 24% of dog-loving posters were.
This difference also didn’t seem to change depending on the age of the owner, which is interesting. It was also found that on average, dog lovers had more friends than cat lovers – by around a 26-friend difference.
Although we’ve looked at one stereotype so far, there’s another one that Facebook’s study has proven to be true as well: that an owner is like their pet. In general, cats are lazy and tired, spending their time lounging around, whereas dogs are more energetic, bouncy and upbeat.
Looking at the status updates of those profiles involved, the cat-lovers tended to post more about being tired, whereas dog-lovers posted more about being excited – an interesting development in the world of pet stereotypes.
Cat People & Dog People Differences
There were various other differences noticed by the study, such as the fact that cat people tended to get invited to more events than dog people, showing that whilst they may have a smaller friendship group, they are closer than friends of dog people.
The location was also a big part of the study – showing that cat people tended to live in busy, metropolitan areas and preferred indoor activities such as reading or watching movies.
Whilst these studies are making strides in the research into pet psychology, we must bear in mind that they do tend to rely on stereotypes and that the findings may not be true for every cat lover, or every dog lover.
Whichever type of pet you prefer, it doesn’t have to reflect on your personality, but it sure is interesting when it does.
Do you agree with these findings? Are you a cat or dog person? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.