Researchers from Bilkent University recorded the first 100 seconds of reunions between owners and their cats and found cats vocalised more when greeting men than women. The study used wearable cameras on 40 owners, yielding 31 usable recordings, and controlled for cat sex, pedigree and household size. Authors suggest women may talk more to cats or be more responsive, prompting cats to meow less, but note cultural context and small sample size limit generalisability.
Study Finds Cats Meow More When Greeting Men — Likely To Get Their Attention
A new study found that cats are more vocal when they greet men than women. . | Credit: marieclaudelemay via Getty Images
Over roughly 10,000 years of domestication, cats have learned to use vocalisations such as meows to communicate with humans. A new study from Turkey suggests domestic cats greet men with vocalisations more often than they greet women — a pattern researchers think may reflect how cats elicit attention from different caregivers.
Study Design and Main Finding
Researchers at Bilkent University in Turkey, led by Kaan Kerman of the Animal Behavior and Human–Animal Interactions Research Group, equipped 40 cat owners with wearable cameras and asked them to film the first 100 seconds of interaction with their cat after returning home. Participants behaved naturally so the footage would capture typical greeting behaviour.
Nine participants were excluded for technical or procedural reasons, leaving 31 usable recordings. Analysis showed that cats vocalised — including meowing — significantly more often when greeting men than when greeting women. No other owner demographic had a discernible effect on the frequency or duration of greeting vocalisations.
Controls, Interpretations and Cultural Context
The team controlled for variables such as the cat’s sex, pedigree status and number of cats in the household; the owner’s sex remained the only significant predictor of vocal greetings. The authors hypothesise that women may generally be more verbally engaged with cats and better at interpreting feline signals, so cats may need to meow less to get their attention. Men, they suggest, may require clearer cues, prompting cats to vocalise more.
"Cats' ability to categorize bonded individuals and modulate their responses" — Kaan Kerman, study co-author, described this as evidence that cats possess cognitive skills that help them adapt to living with people.
The researchers also emphasised cultural factors could play a role: prior studies show people in different societies interact with cats in different ways, shaping cat behaviour. Because the sample came from a single region in Turkey, the authors note the cultural context may have influenced the pattern and called for replication in other countries.
What The Vocalisations Mean — And What They Don’t
Importantly, the study found that meows and other vocal signals did not cluster into a single behavioural pattern tied to a specific emotional state or need. In other words, increased meowing toward men does not necessarily indicate a fixed preference for men or reflect only hunger or distress.
Limitations And Next Steps
The authors acknowledge several limitations: a small sample size (31 usable recordings), participants from the same region, and uncontrolled factors such as the cat’s hunger level, how long the cat had been alone, and the number of other people present. Previous work shows separation length can change greeting behaviours, so these results do not prove cats always meow more at men.
"One important next step is to replicate the findings in different cultural contexts. This would help us understand how generalisable the results are," Kerman said.
Dennis Turner, director of the Institute for Applied Ethology and Animal Psychology (not involved in the study), praised the research and agreed that differences in how men and women interact with cats could explain the pattern. He emphasised that the behaviour likely reflects cats' social flexibility rather than a true sex-based preference.
Bottom line: The study suggests cats may strategically use vocalisation to gain attention, and they tailor that behaviour to individual humans — but more, cross-cultural research with larger samples is needed to confirm and clarify the reasons.
