Do Cats Feel Embarrassment? What Science Says
Why they act so shy or flustered after awkward moments.
In This Article:
What Is Embarrassment? An Overview of Emotions in Animals Do Cats Get Embarrassed or Feel Emotions? Potential Signs of Embarrassment in Cats How to Help Your Cat if They Are Experiencing Distress
Even the most angelic cat makes blunders. Maybe you have come home to find that they’ve scratched your sofa, been climbing on your countertops, or made a total mess of their litter tray. Unlike dogs, who are pretty good at giving us the puppy dog eyes and making us believe they feel shame, cats can seem very nonchalant when they’ve done something wrong. That can make them hard to understand, which in turn makes them more difficult to train than a dog.
But they do sometimes act in ways that make it appear as if they’re embarrassed. This might mean running away after making a mistake or avoiding eye contact. Can cats actually feel embarrassment, or are we just projecting? There are many scenarios where they seem to be embarrassed, such as when we watch them peeing or pooping. That’s partly why many cats prefer covered litter boxes. They may also appear to feel ashamed when they do something wrong. However, this doesn’t mean that they’re embarrassed — we may be making assumptions about our cats’ feelings based on our understanding of human behavior.
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What is embarrassment?
Embarrassment is hard to define, but we all know the feeling when it rises. It is a complicated, self-conscious emotion that bubbles up when we feel as if we’ve done something wrong. The shame that we feel may be because of our own internal judgement, or due to the judgement of others. When we feel embarrassed, it manifests in physical signs such as stammering, blushing, sweating, or struggling to talk. Sometimes embarrassment is outsized compared to the perceived mistake made, but that doesn’t mean it feels any less real to the person experiencing it.
An overview of emotions in animals
This won’t come as a surprise to pet parents, but according to researchopens in new tab, nonhuman animals do feel emotions. Dogs, cats, pigs, sheep, rats, cows, and so many more beautiful creatures absolutely feel emotions such as happiness, fear, stress, and grief.
One emotion that some animals, such as apes, can feel is embarrassment. Researchers seem unable to agree on whether or not other mammals, such as dogs, can feel embarrassment or shame. Some believe they do, while others believe that we are simply anthropomorphizing them and transposing onto them what we believe they should be feeling in response to certain situations.
Do cats get embarrassed or feel emotions?
Like most nonhuman animals, cats can absolutely feel emotions. They can feel a range of big, human-like feelings such as fear, happiness, anxiety, relief, depression, and frustration. The way that cats bond with and treat their owners also indicates that they are likely able to feel love, but there isn’t enough conclusive research yet.
But we don’t yet know if cats can feel embarrassed. We do know that cats can feel primary emotions with an evolutionary significance, such as joy, anger, and surprise. However, it’s not clear if they can feel secondary emotions, which include things like pride, embarrassment, and jealousy. That doesn’t mean, of course, that we won’t learn more — through research — that they do feel these things.
Potential signs of embarrassment in cats
Embarrassment is a complicated emotion that requires a few different things of the person feeling it. One of those things is self-awareness, and the other is an understanding of how we’re seen and perceived. We don’t know yet whether cats have these things, so we cannot know whether they can feel embarrassed. However, there are some behaviors, both physical and behavioral, that might be interpreted as embarrassment by pet parents.
Behavioral signs
Studies have found that 40 to 50 percent of pet parents believe their pet feels secondary emotionsopens in new tab. However, this is anecdotal.
When it comes to embarrassment, we tend to believe that this is what they’re feeling based on our interpretation of their behaviors. If a cat falls over or slips, they might scurry away or seem to avoid eye contact. If they knock something over, they might run away, making them appear to feel ashamed of their mistake and of making a mess. However, they might simply be trying to avoid your negative reaction. They could also be looking around for potential predators. Cat behavior is complex, and we tend to make assumptions based on how we would feel in the moment.
Physical signs
In addition to avoiding eye contact, your cat might show other physical signs that make it appear as if they are embarrassed. This could include running away, scurrying, or hiding.
There are other physical signs of (potential) embarrassment, too. If your cat is grooming themselves, you might notice that they suddenly stop and appear to be embarrassed when you look at them or walk in the room. Although this seems to be the same as our feelings of embarrassment, it could actually just mean that you’ve interrupted them, and they’re taking notice of you. Cats tend to be hyper-vigilant and won’t engage in behaviors such as grooming if they feel watched.
How to help your cat if they are experiencing distress
If your cat appears to feel embarrassed, there is not much that you can do. As you know from your own experiences, if it isn’t too serious, they will get over it soon. And if they do anything wrong, you should avoid shouting at them or trying to make them feel bad. Laughing at them can also distress them.
If they experience serious signs of distress, such as flattened ears or a hunched body, try to soothe them by creating a calm environment — using calming plug-ins, putting on soft music, distracting them, or performing other actions to calm them. If they are experiencing more serious distress on a chronic basis, you can consult with your vet to work on adjusting their environment.
Bottom line
Cats may not feel embarrassment the same way that humans do, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have emotions at all. In fact, as time goes on, we may discover that cats do, in fact, feel secondary emotions on top of primary ones. For now, you can see your cat’s apparent feelings of shame and embarrassment as just another cute quirk of who they are and how they behave.
FAQs
What are the signs that a cat might be feeling embarrassed?
If your cat does something embarrassing, like knock a pot off the windowsill, they may act in ways that make them appear embarrassed. This could mean slinking away, hiding, or avoiding eye contact with you. However, they might not actually be feeling embarrassment as we understand it.
How does cat embarrassment differ from human embarrassment?
Cat embarrassment is different from human embarrassment for many reasons. If cats feel shame and embarrassment (as they appear to), it’s likely without the self-awareness that humans have. We can internalize the judgment of ourselves and others, making us feel deeply embarrassed. We might stutter, go red, or struggle to speak to the other person. A cat, however, cannot do any of those things. Although they may appear to feel embarrassed, it’s actually likely we’re just interpreting their behavior based on what we understand of people.
