Social referencing: cats consult owners about novel objects

When confronted with an ambiguous, potentially frightening object such as a noisy fan, do cats look to their owner for guidance? In this experiment owners reacted to the object with either a positive or a negative emotional voice and expression. Many cats looked back and forth between the object and the owner, and their subsequent behaviour, including which side of the room they moved toward, was influenced by the owner's emotional message. The findings provide evidence of social referencing in cats, a sophisticated form of communication previously documented mainly in human infants and dogs, deepening understanding of how cats use humans as information sources.