Women perceive men posing with cats on dating apps as ‘less dateable,’ study finds

A picture’s worth a thousand words, and when it comes to online dating, possibly even more: Various apps, like Tinder and Hinge, allow you to “swipe left” or reject someone based off their looks alone. It may seem harsh to judge books (and humans) by their covers, but nearly half of people believe that they can understand strangers’ real-life personalities based off their photos, and even prefer certain photographic trends over others. For example: Posing with pets.

Previously, research found that having pets plays a significant role in who people choose to date, and that women prefer men who have cats and dogs over no pets at all. That said, they favoured those with canines. Intrigued by the aforementioned findings, Colorado State University researchers sought out to investigate how having cats in photos would affect an individual’s online dating experience, if at all.

For the study, the CSU team surveyed 1,388 heterosexual women, requesting they rate multiple images of men — some with cats, some without — as well as the man’s “masculinity,” “femininity,” and “date-ability.” Lastly, they were queried as to whether they identified as a “dog person,” “cat person,” neither or both.

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Much to the researchers’ surprise, majority of the participants found the men holding cats to be “less dateable,” despite previous studies demonstrating that women preferred men with pets as partners. When shown photos of men sans feline, 38 percent of respondents said they would casually date him, while 37 percent would consider a serious relationship. However, in response to the same man holding a cat, the numbers dropped to 33 percent for each category. Over all, women were more likely to completely rule out men with cats as potential partners.

The study respondents felt that the men with cats were less extroverted, more neurotic, agreeable, and open, perceiving the cat owners as “less masculine” than those without feline friends. That said, women who identified as “cat people” were more likely to be willing to date those holding cats, or have no opinion.

“We suspect old cultural norms may be playing a role in the responses,” the study authors wrote regarding the results. “Past research suggests that male femininity and homosexuality are still perceived to be connected. Since cats are sometimes associated more closely with female owners – and therefore, considered a feminine pet – posing with cats may have primed the women taking our survey to default to this outdated trope, despite some popular media efforts to elevate the status of male cat owners.”

Meouch.