This Is Why People Meow At Their Cats (Admit It, Cat Owners, You Totally Do It)

As self-proclaimed cat people, we know for a fact that we are our own unique breed. We let our cats rule the roost, and we are always at their beck and call. Some of us have even tried to pick up the cat language. A new study published in July’s issue of the Journal of Applied Animal Behaviour Science uncovered some interesting relationship traits between humans and their cats, including why some of us meow to communicate with them. (Admit it, cat owners! You’ve totally done it before.)

157 Hungarian cat owners took part in the study, which was conducted by researchers at the Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. By asking the cat owners a series of questions about their relationship with their cat(s), researchers were able to make several conclusions about the socio-cognitive relationship between cats and their humans.

For example, people who have a cat as their only pet use pointing signals more often than verbalized commands. And female cat owners are more likely to believe that their cats were more communicative and empathetic than male cat owners did.

But perhaps the most interesting data collected by the researchers was in regards to owners imitating “cat vocalizations.” Younger cat owners imitated their cats’ meows more often, as did owners who initiated play with their cats. But why?

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The authors of the study noted that people might emit cat-like noises to “enhance the success of human-cat communication,” although more research would be needed to verify this claim.

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Inverse talked to an author of more than 20 cat-related books, Clea Simon, to shed some light on the situation. Simon said that people might use meows and purrs in an effort to show their appreciation for their cat’s love (which, as we all know, isn’t something that’s easily acquired).

Us trying to tell them “thanks for loving me” in their own language basically goes back to the idea that we’re often eager to do anything to please our feline friends.

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Although there’s little to no evidence to suggest that meowing or purring makes your cat understand you better, meow away, cat people. We’re almost positive our cats are reading our minds anyway.