How cats can recognize human emotions.

Cats recognizing human emotions explains why mine only shows up when I'm crying on the floor. Free therapy, terrible bedside manner.

My cat always knows when I'm down, and snuggles me out of it – they're little emotional superheroes

Can confirm. My strays know exactly when I'm stressed. That's when they decide it's the perfect time to knock something off the counter while staring me dead in the eye. 😼

there's a 2016 study where they picked up their owner's mood fine and mostly just didn't react 😭

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Studies suggest they read it from more than faces: a 2020 Animal Cognition study found cats match emotional voices to the right facial expressions, both in humans and other cats. Earlier work showed they act warmer when their owner smiles than when they frown, but only with their own human, not strangers.