Overview
- The study, published Wednesday, November 4, 2026 in PLOS One, used an online questionnaire adapted from an infant personality measure to probe fear and approach behavior in domestic cats.
- Owners of 310 cats completed the survey and researchers identified four personality clusters they labeled highly sociable, sociable, fearful, and a fourth group that combined high fear with a strong tendency to approach novelty.
- That fourth group matches a form of shyness seen in human infants where animals are both wary and curious about strangers or new objects.
- The infant-like shyness pattern was more common in male cats and in animals born as strays, and authors say recognizing these mixed fear–approach profiles could help tailor socialization and shelter handling.
- The paper notes key limits because data come from owner reports, declares no competing interests, lists JST and JSPS funders, and calls for follow-up home-based behavioral work using owner-led or citizen science methods to validate the finding.