In 2019, behavioral biologist Georgia Mason from the University of Guelph in Canada conducted a survey on internet users worldwide. Her team collected 40 cat videos, in which the cats exhibited either positive or negative emotions, such as being rewarded with cat snacks (positive) or about to run away (negative).

Mason and colleagues cropped the video footage to only show the cat's face, removing any sound, and then asked netizens to determine the cat's emotional state in the video.

As a result, out of over 6300 responses from 85 countries around the world, the average accuracy rate was 20 questions answered correctly and 12 questions answered correctly. In other words, it's just a little stronger than being blind. This discovery is not surprising. Ultimately, cats do not rely on facial expressions to convey emotions as humans do.

The recent common ancestor of domestic cats is a territorial conscious solitary animal, and they are more active at night, which makes rich and obvious facial expressions less useful. In the wild where there is a risk of predation, if encountering uncomfortable or painful situations, it is easier to avoid the predator's observation by keeping an expressionless face than by showing emotions. Social humans are vastly different. Our survival relies on frequent communication with other individuals, and facial expressions have evolved into effective ways to convey emotions, thoughts, and mental states. Once the other person's face is not visible during communication, people may misjudge their attitude due to a lack of perception of their expressions and expressions.

Therefore, when communicating with cats, many people unconsciously apply their understanding of human facial expressions to cat facial expressions. Jackson Galaxy, the host of "Punish Bad Cats," likens this tendency to "wearing dog colored glasses to see cats," hoping that cats can communicate with people in a way that humans can immediately understand. This expectation is certainly wishful thinking, but it also explains why many people feel that cats are always nagging.

Can a cat's small face reflect pain?🐱

Undoubtedly, pain can affect the quality of life of cats. However, since cats do not self report the pain they are experiencing to humans, fecal collectors and veterinarians can only evaluate whether cats are suffering and the extent of their suffering through observation. Observing where becomes the key to the problem.

In 2014, researchers in Glasgow, Scotland, based on descriptions from veterinarians, cat breeders, animal rescuers, and cat owners, developed six categories to observe when evaluating acute pain in cats, including vocalizations, postures, attention to wounds, responses to human calls, responses to touch, and overall appearance. It can be seen that in the initial version, the facial expressions of cats were not a concern. In recent years, researchers have only incorporated facial expressions into the system for evaluating cat pain. In 2017, Glasgow's "Cat Pain Scale" added attention to Cat's ears (Steamed cat-ear shaped bread) ears, mouth and nose in the form of soul painting .

In order to better capture and quantify the unilateral facial changes of cats under painful conditions, Lauren Finka from the University of Nottingham Trent in the UK used geometric morphometry methods to compare the facial expression changes of cats before and after surgery. She and her collaborators identified some facial features related to pain in cats, including flattened ears, nose downward pressure, pursed lips, squinted eyes, and more, which were mostly consistent with the Ghost Face Scale. In addition, cats in pain will have their right ear pointing outward and their nose slightly to the left.

The image shows a mirrored display of the cat's face.
The blue arrow indicates the direction and magnitude of changes in facial features of cats as the degree of pain increases 

On the issue of "emotion recognition", let's take the initiative to take this step, and spend more time and thought to learn and understand the expressions and needs of domestic cats, so that they can get the happiness they deserve.

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