Are There Five Cat Personalities? The 'Feline Five' and Intelligence
Key takeaways
- A survey of 2,802 pet cats extracted five factors: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Dominance, Impulsiveness, and Agreeableness.
- Personality is not intelligence; the factors describe behavioral tendencies, not levels of ability.
- Highly impulsive cats may be reacting to something stressful in their environment.
- Personality differences affect willingness to participate in cognitive tests, which makes scores easy to misread as ability.
'My cat is shy.' 'This one is endlessly curious.' The vocabulary owners use daily has also been studied formally—using the same method behind the human Big Five.
The Feline Five
Litchfield and colleagues (2017) had owners rate 52 personality traits for 2,802 pet cats in South Australia and New Zealand, then ran principal axis factor analysis. Five reliable factors emerged:
- Neuroticism: anxiety, fearfulness, wariness
- Extraversion: curiosity, activity, exploration
- Dominance: assertive behavior toward other cats
- Impulsiveness: unpredictability, abruptness of behavior
- Agreeableness: gentleness and friendliness toward people and cats
The authors named this the 'Feline Five.' Importantly, it is not a division of cats into five types. Every cat has a position on each of the five dimensions.
Personality is not intelligence
Personality factors describe tendencies in behavior, not levels of ability. A highly extraverted cat is not therefore 'smart,' and a neurotic cat is not therefore slow.
The same distinction holds in humans: personality inventories and intelligence tests measure different things, and correlations between them are limited (EQ versus IQ).
Personality still affects cognitive test results
This is the practical point. Feline cognition studies frequently report that wary individuals abandon tasks partway. Cats high in neuroticism explore less to begin with.
As a result, a test score can end up measuring willingness to participate rather than ability. That is one reason cat cognition research lags behind dog research (can a cat's IQ be measured?). At home too, choosing a moment when the cat is relaxed changes the outcome of any observation (five feline intelligence tests to try at home).
Changes in personality are health signals
Litchfield and colleagues also discuss practical uses of personality rating. Highly impulsive cats may be reacting to something stressful in their environment, and irritability showing up as low agreeableness may indicate underlying pain or illness.
Personality assessment, then, is not a way to label a cat but an entry point for reviewing its environment and health. The link between stress and cognition is covered in stress and cognition in cats.
Relationship with breed
Breed stereotypes—Siamese as active, Persians as calm—have partial support in behavioral surveys. But within-breed variation exceeds between-breed differences, so breed predicts an individual's personality poorly (are 'smartest cat breed' rankings real?).
Personality and cognition in humans
In humans too, personality and cognitive ability are measured separately. In testing situations, though, personality affects scores: tension and lack of sleep both suppress performance (how to approach an IQ test).
The free NekoIQ IQ test is a non-verbal test of 20 questions taking about 10 minutes; take it somewhere calm. Results are estimates for self-understanding and are not a substitute for an official intelligence test.
Frequently asked questions
- How many cat personality types are there?
A study of 2,802 cats extracted five personality factors: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Dominance, Impulsiveness, and Agreeableness. This does not mean five types of cat—every cat sits somewhere on all five dimensions.
- Are agreeable cats smarter?
Personality and intelligence are separate constructs. Personality factors describe behavioral tendencies and do not indicate problem-solving ability.
- Can a cat's personality be changed?
Personality itself is fairly stable, but behavior shifts with environment. A drop in agreeableness or a rise in impulsiveness can signal pain or stress, so check health and environment first.
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Editorial note & disclaimer
This article was written and edited by the NekoIQ Editorial Team using peer-reviewed research in animal cognition, behavior, and veterinary science. We distinguish the study's measured result from interpretation and report limitations such as sample size, task fit, and motivation where relevant.
The tests on this site provide estimates for entertainment and self-understanding purposes only. They are not medical or clinical assessments, nor official psychological (intelligence) tests.