# Can cats really tell who is a good person? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 23, 2014, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cats-really-tell-who-is-a-good-person/699309 "2014-09-23T04:36:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cats-really-tell-who-is-a-good-person/699309/21 "2014-09-24T17:18:42Z")
One of our dogs, ([Ella, the one in the middle),](http://i681.photobucket.com/albums/vv174/kayaker01/LokiEllaKali_zpsb766dbae.jpg) **hates** little old ladies. She’s fine around kids, bikers, the UPS guy, etc. But she would rip out the throat of a stereotypical little old lady. What happened to her before she ended up at the shelter is amusing to speculate about. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cats-really-tell-who-is-a-good-person/699309/22 "2014-09-24T18:06:30Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > You were quoting Mr. Van Vechten, not I. > As for the off-topic question, I am British: there is a long tradition here away from the pious hype, starting with his colleagues in the Edwardian Liberal party, both left and right, progressive and reactionary, to consider Churchill a vainglorious, publicity-seeking, incompetent bounder and war-monger [ the latter not in the sense that WWII was wrong, but that, like his model Bonaparte, — or Trotsky and Hitler — he needed wars to thrive and considered himself a genius at them ), Anyone willing to consider re-arming the defeated German army in 1945 to fight Our Glorious Ally was not thinking clearly. I have always regarded him as a fat little vulgarian. > Plus he hated Prussia. Besides, he’s half-American on his mother’s side. How much more do you need to know? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cats-really-tell-who-is-a-good-person/699309/23 "2014-09-24T18:26:07Z")
Can cats really tell who is a good person? No, but many people who like cats enjoy believing this is the case. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cats-really-tell-who-is-a-good-person/699309/24 "2014-09-24T19:05:05Z")
Dogs and I think to a lesser extent cats (because they are not innately social beings) don’t read character in the sense humans mean it but they are highly sensitive to body language and affect, more so than most people are. They read micro-clues of even if someone is trying to conceal it. They also respond well to people who understand how to communicate nonverbally with animals (very few seem to, even though it is pretty easy). ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cats-really-tell-who-is-a-good-person/699309/25 "2014-09-24T19:20:47Z")
> [@B.Serum](#): > > No. Obviously cats don’t like you, just be good and they will. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2014, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cats-really-tell-who-is-a-good-person/699309/26 "2014-09-25T12:44:00Z")
While I don’t necessarily believe that cats have a superior ability to suss out good or bad people, my former cats did take an intense dislike to a guy I was dating once, who turned out to be Not a Nice Fellow. Every single time I went out with him, one of them pooped on the floor. The other just never came around, to the point where the guy doubted the cat’s existence. And I went out plenty for other reasons; it’s not as though I was suddenly gone a lot and they were protesting my absence. Then they turned out to be very fond of the man I eventually married, who is a good guy. (But then we had kids and they hated that, so my anecdote breaks down there). ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2014, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cats-really-tell-who-is-a-good-person/699309/27 "2014-09-25T22:35:46Z")
Animals can certainly smell chemicals given off your body by fear, and probably some other hormonal emissions, as well. Animals can also tell by your eyes whether you are looking at them or not, and detect the size of your pupils and evaluate it for meaning. Even humans can do that, but it is usually subconscious – like animals. When you were sitting in the back row, you always knew whether your teacher was looking at you or at somebody else, even if you needed glasses. That is an unerring instinct in all animals. Those of you who wish to continue will be regaled with an anecdote. I was visiting friends in Belize, who had a work station in her house lighted by an upstairs window, with a fruiting tree just a few feet from the window. Every afternoon, a pair of green toucans came to feed in the tree. She noted that they flew away as soon as she looked at them. This happened so many days, that she conducted an experiment. She could be doing her routine work at her desk, moving about, and the birds would stealthily arrive unnoticed and continue to feed, until she focused her eyes on them - then they would immediately fly away and not return until the next day. I was there when she did this, and if either of us looked at the toucans, they flew, but if we didn’t look at them, we could even wave our arms and they would remain. Even through a window screen, in a relatively dark interior, they could see if anyone’s eyes were locked on them, and felt safe as long as none were. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cats-really-tell-who-is-a-good-person/699309/28 "2014-09-26T00:56:39Z")
Cats can tell a good person. Though they define a good person as “a human that might give me what I want.” ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cats-really-tell-who-is-a-good-person/699309/29 "2014-09-26T01:41:26Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Cats are basically amoral, if not actively sociopathic. So I’m not sure a cat taking to someone is an endorsement of character. > > I hear tell Hitler’s German Shepherd was fond of him. > > Most dogs I encounter seem to like me. That’s probably because 1) they’re intrinsically friendly, 2) I’m at ease around dogs, and 3) I do good ear-scratching and belly-rubbing. I think you have those in the wrong order. One of my favorite cartoons (not animated cartoon, but an ink and paper type, as found in _The New Yorker_), showed a dog on a beach, who had walked up upon a bottle that had been washed up onto the shore. Apparently, the dog had pulled the stopper out of the end of the bottle and a genie had emerged. The genie says to the dog “Let me get this straight, for your three wishes, you want three belly rubs?”. The dog is nodding affirmatively. And, you don’t even have to be good at belly rubbing, you just have to rub the belly. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cats-really-tell-who-is-a-good-person/699309/30 "2014-09-27T23:37:03Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > In my experience, what cats can tell very quickly is whether someone can handle a can opener and whether they have a warm lap. They’re mostly interested in food and body heat. Evolution has brought them up to be amoral killers of small cute things – that’s a pretty crummy benchmark for judging if you’re Mr. Nice Guy. Amoral?! They’re hunting strictly for survival. And both morality and cuteness are totally human concepts which we impose onto things from our POV. It’s like saying cats are amoral because mice are cute but birds aren’t because worms & insects are gross. These concepts have no meaning whatsoever to animals. > [@Scumpup](#): > > Can cats really tell who is a good person? > > No, but many people who like cats enjoy believing this is the case. Guilty as charged… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2014, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cats-really-tell-who-is-a-good-person/699309/31 "2014-09-28T03:26:06Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Amoral?! They’re hunting strictly for survival. And both morality and cuteness are totally human concepts which we impose onto things from our POV. Er, that’s what **Finagle** is saying. “Amoral” means they are not concerned with moral issues. As you point out, moral frameworks are a human concept, so of course cats operate outside them. It’s not a judgment that cats are bad or wrong for doing so, just a statement that morality is irrelevant to a cat. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cats-really-tell-who-is-a-good-person/699309/32 "2014-09-29T00:28:26Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > Er, that’s what **Finagle** is saying. “Amoral” means they are not concerned with moral issues. As you point out, moral frameworks are a human concept, so of course cats operate outside them. It’s not a judgment that cats are bad or wrong for doing so, just a statement that morality is irrelevant to a cat. Correct, I apologize for my error. I always equate amoral with immoral. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cats-really-tell-who-is-a-good-person/699309/33 "2014-09-29T00:35:28Z")
I had a cat in college that my roommate disliked. The cat reciprocated by chewing through the stems of his prized house plants until they all fell over. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cats-really-tell-who-is-a-good-person/699309.md?page=1)