Why cats love to sleep in boxes

Cats are fascinated by cardboard boxes, boxes and geometrically shaped objects. Why this love? Researchers have looked into the subject that torments any self-respecting feline fan.

Gabriella Smith is a researcher working on animal behavior. His latest study focuses on the behavior of cats: why do they like to settle in boxes so much? Another remarkable and strange fact: why do they also like to settle so much on simple geometric shapes drawn on the ground?
His theories are as follows: Domesticated felines like to feel surrounded by a physical presence, which reminds them of when they were little kittens surrounded by their fellows. They also instinctively seek out places to hide, as if they were hunting prey. What’s amazing is that cats seem to love boxes just as much as they do the two-dimensional shapes that are reminiscent of a box. But why ?

Also read: Does your cat want to eat all the time? We have the solution

Cats are sensitive to optical illusions

Gabriella Smith and her team therefore took advantage of the confinement to observe, thanks to voluntary witnesses, the behavior of our pets. The results were published on May 4, 2021 in a study titled “If I go there, I sit there: a citizen science survey on the susceptibility to illusory contours in domestic cats”. Note that this title uses the famous meme “If I fits, I sits”, which has allowed us to curl for years.

500 cat owners were selected to participate in the experiment. They received two types of shapes to be taped to the ground at home: a so-called Kanisza motif (made up of four motifs that form a square) and a control motif, whose outward shapes do not draw a square. . The participants, equipped with dark glasses so as not to give unintentional indications, had to observe the behavior of the animal discovering the device. This, for 5 minutes and 6 consecutive days. At the end of the experiment, the majority of cats chose Kanisza’s pattern, which is the one that forms a square. The researchers deduced that it was because by optical illusion, the animals saw a box in it.

Nothing beats that said a good old cardboard to amuse and reassure your favorite animal! It will be particularly effective if you have just moved: indeed, cats fearing change, a card will allow them to tame their new environment by finding a reassuring point of reference. Bonus: cardboard is a material they can scratch without fear of damage! So, shall we sit down?

Mathilde Wattecamps

Missions: Mathilde is an expert in subjects related to women’s rights and health. Addicted to Instagram and Twitter, never stingy with a good …