# Do Cats Follow Human Pointing? Research on Social Referencing Source: https://iqcat.vercel.app/en/blog/cat-social-cognition Published: 2026-08-25 Publisher: NekoIQ (https://iqcat.vercel.app) Tags: 猫, 行動, 認知科学, 研究 > Can cats use human pointing, gaze, and expression as information? Using object-choice and social-referencing experiments, we explain what cats read from their owners. ## Key takeaways - In tasks where a person points to a baited container, no significant difference between cats and dogs has been reported. - In a social-referencing experiment, about 79% of cats looked back and forth between an unfamiliar object and their owner. - When owners behaved as if anxious, cats more often oriented toward the room's exit. - When a task becomes unsolvable, cats look up at people for help less often than dogs do. The impression that cats ignore human signals runs deep. The experimental results tell a slightly different story: cats can use human pointing, and they sometimes read a situation from how their owner behaves. ## No difference from dogs on pointing [Miklósi and colleagues (2005)](https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7036.119.2.179) compared dogs and cats on a task in which food was hidden in one of two containers and a person pointed to the correct one. Cats used the gesture to choose correctly, with no significant difference from dogs. Understanding a human point looks obvious but is genuinely difficult. Even chimpanzees do not perform stably without training. That cats use it spontaneously is generally attributed to their long history of living alongside people. ## Social referencing: checking the owner's face [Merola and colleagues (2015)](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-014-0832-2) examined social referencing in cats—the mechanism of deciding how to act in an ambiguous situation by consulting a trusted individual's reaction, studied in detail in human infants. In the experiment, a cat and its owner were in a room containing a potentially frightening novel object: an electric fan with ribbons attached. One group of owners delivered a positive emotional message about the object; another group delivered a negative one. Most cats—79%—showed referential looking between the owner and the object, defined as looking at the owner immediately before or after looking at the object. To some extent, cats also adjusted their behavior in line with the owner's emotional message; in the negative condition, orienting toward the room's exit was more frequently reported. ## The difference appears in asking for help The same Miklósi study also compared reactions when the food became impossible to retrieve. Dogs frequently looked up at the person and alternated gaze between person and object. Cats did this less and tended to keep working on the problem themselves. It is more accurate to read this as a different problem-solving strategy than as 'cats do not rely on people.' Dogs descend from cooperative hunters and were selected to work alongside humans ([which is smarter, cats or dogs?](https://iqcat.vercel.app/en/blog/cat-vs-dog-intelligence)). ## No third-party evaluation reported Dogs have been reported to avoid food from a person who behaved coldly toward their owner. When the same procedure was run with cats, they did not avoid such a person ([do cats avoid people who are unkind to their owner?](https://iqcat.vercel.app/en/blog/cat-reputation-judgment)). Cats share some aspects of human-directed social behavior with dogs, but not all. ## Trying it at home The pointing task is easy to reproduce. Place two upturned cups, hide a treat under one, and point to the correct cup while the cat watches. The keys are not to bring your finger too close and to allow the choice at the moment the cat looks at the cup rather than at your hand ([five feline intelligence tests to try at home](https://iqcat.vercel.app/en/blog/cat-iq-test-at-home)). ## Human social cognition and IQ In humans, reading social signals is studied as social cognition and is distinguished from what traditional IQ tests measure ([EQ versus IQ](https://iqcat.vercel.app/en/blog/eq-vs-iq)). The [free NekoIQ IQ test](https://iqcat.vercel.app/en/start) measures non-verbal reasoning across four domains in 20 questions and about 10 minutes. Results are estimates for self-understanding and are not a substitute for an official intelligence test. ## Frequently asked questions ### Can cats understand human pointing? Yes. In tasks where a person points to the container holding food, cats use the gesture to choose correctly, with no reported difference from dogs. ### Do cats decide what to do by watching their owner? Sometimes. Facing an unfamiliar object, about 79% of cats looked back and forth between the object and their owner, and cats whose owners acted anxious more often moved toward the exit. ### Why do cats not ask for help when stuck? Cats descend from solitary hunters, and a strategy of solving problems in cooperation with people was not selected for as strongly as in dogs. It is a difference in strategy, not ability. ## Disclaimer NekoIQ provides estimates for entertainment and self-understanding. It is not a medical, clinical, or official psychological assessment. Percentages are derived from a normal distribution with mean 100 and SD 15.