貓咪通常被認為是比較獨立的動物，大多數人認為貓很冷漠，過著相當孤獨的生活，好像在它們眼裡並沒有“主人”這個概念，更不會對人有什麼依戀性，但是，俄勒岡州立大學的一項研究發現，事實並非如此。
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Cats have a rotten reputation as a cold and distant domesticated animal — at least compared to their main competitor, known as “man’s best friend（dogs）.”
作為一種冷漠而疏離的家養動物，貓咪的名聲並不太好，至少與它們的主要競爭對手，“人類最好的朋友（狗狗）”相比是這樣。
But felines do feel affection towards their humans, they simply express it differently — and it’s not just cat people saying it! Now there’s science to prove it, too.
但貓科動物確實是喜歡人類的，只是它們的表達方式不同——而且不僅僅是養貓人士這麼說！現在也有科學證明了這一點。
Oregon State University researchers concluded that cats really do actually love their humans — or at the very least, see them as parents or caregivers — after conducting a study on kittens, modeled after previous research on dogs and babies.
俄勒岡州立大學的研究人員模仿此前對狗狗和嬰兒的研究，對小貓咪也進行了一番研究，並得出結論：貓咪真的真的很愛主人——或者至少是把主人看做父母或“照顧者”。
The study, published in Current Biology, examined how kitten subjects reacted after spending two minutes with their caretaker, being left alone, then reuniting for another two minutes. After the experiment, they categorized each kitten by the attachment styles assigned to human babies and dogs in previous studies — secure, ambivalent, avoidant, and disorganized.
這項發表在《當代生物學》上的研究測試了小貓在與看護人呆上兩分鐘後被單獨留下，然後和看護人重新團聚兩分鐘之後的反應。實驗結束後，研究人員根據此前研究中給人類嬰兒和狗狗劃分的依戀型別對每隻小貓進行分類——安全型、矛盾型、迴避型和無序型。
64 percent of the kittens demonstrated a “secure attachment style” to their caregiver, meaning the cat seemed distraught when they left the room but “displayed a reduced stress response” upon their return.
64%的小貓對他們的看護人表現出“安全依戀”，這意味著當看護人離開房間時，小貓看起來心煩意亂，但當看護人回來時，小貓的“應激反應表現得到緩解”。
On the other hand, about 30 percent of the kittens were found to have an “insecure attachment style,” which means their stress levels did not decrease upon their person’s return to the room. That said, this split is consistent with the literature on human children — so the smaller percentage with insecure attachment styles is not specific to cats, contrary to popular belief. Also of note: The percentage of cats with “secure” attachment styles is actually higher than dogs’ — only 58 per cent of dogs demonstrated the “secure” attachment, while 42 percent were categorized as insecure.
另一方面，大約30%的小貓出現“不安全依戀”，這意味著當看護人回到房間時，小貓的壓力水平並沒有降低。也就是說，這種劃分比例與對人類兒童的研究文獻是一致的——因此，與普遍觀點相反，較少比例的不安全依戀型並非貓咪特有的。同樣值得注意的是：“安全依戀型”的貓咪比例實際上高於狗狗——只有58%的狗狗表現出“安全”依戀，而42%被歸類為“不安全依戀”。
What’s more, cats’ behavioural patterns remained consistent when the OSU team recreated the experiment with a group of fully grown cats. Thus: Kittens and cats show the same level of affection to their caregivers as human babies, and maybe even slightly more than dogs.
更重要的是，當該研究團隊用一組成年貓重新進行實驗時，貓咪的行為模式保持一致。因此：小貓和成年貓對看護者的愛戀程度與人類嬰兒相同，甚至可能比狗略高。
來源：《獨立報》編輯：董靜
來源：中國日報網
