The 'Feline Five': an exploration of personality in pet cats

Litchfield and colleagues surveyed owners of many pet cats to characterise feline personality, identifying five broad factors they termed the 'Feline Five': neuroticism, extraversion, dominance, impulsiveness and agreeableness. They argued that recognising these traits can improve cat welfare, since, for example, highly neurotic cats may need more hiding and predictability, while certain trait combinations may flag underlying stress or environmental mismatch. The large owner-reported dataset gave a robust structure for domestic-cat personality with practical management implications. The study is widely cited in companion-animal welfare for linking individual temperament to housing and care needs, and it complements work on wild felid personality by extending systematic assessment to the domestic cat.