The fleeting way cats make eye contact may explain why some autistic children develop stronger relationships with pet cats than pet dogs.
The 鈥渓ess intrusive glance鈥� of cats, compared to the 鈥渓ong gazes鈥� that dogs make, might align better with autistic children鈥檚 鈥渟ocial needs,鈥� says Marine Grandgeorge at the University of Rennes in France.
鈥淐ats don鈥檛 hold a stare but tend to look away after short bouts of eye contact, and it鈥檚 possible that this feels more comfortable for people with autism,鈥� she says.
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Previous research based on questionnaires with parents has shown that autistic children develop relationships with pets and often have 鈥減rivileged鈥� relationships with cats, says Grandgeorge.
She and her colleagues visited 42 homes in western France and observed 23 autistic boys and 19 neurotypical boys and girls, all aged 6 to 12, who had either a pet cat or dog.
By analysing the videos made during these visits, the researchers found that neurotypical children tended to gaze longer at their pets than children with autism did, she says.
They noted that dogs 鈥� as well as children who aren鈥檛 autistic 鈥� tended to gaze for at least a second at a time during eye contact, says Grandgeorge. Cats 鈥� as well as autistic children 鈥� tended to give much shorter glances.
鈥淭here鈥檚 this belief that autistic children don鈥檛 want social contact with humans, but maybe they just don鈥檛 want humans to insist on creating a connection through long gazes, because that feels too intrusive,鈥� says Martine Hausberger at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, who worked on the study.
鈥淐ats glance, look away, then glance back again briefly, and what we see is the child then actively seeking attention from the cat,鈥� says Hausberger. 鈥淭hat could be stimulating and developing social skills that are often considered lacking in autistic people.鈥�
The findings are somewhat surprising for James Cusack, CEO of the UK autism research charity Autistica. 鈥淢any of the autistic adults in our organisation actually prefer dogs!鈥� says Cusack, who is autistic himself. 鈥淏ut autistic people are enormously diverse, so it鈥檚 normal to have both 鈥榙og people鈥� and 鈥榗at people鈥� in the autism population.鈥�
Even so, the gregarious nature of dogs might seem 鈥渋ntimidating鈥� to some autistic children, who 鈥渕ight find them unpredictable鈥�, he says.
鈥淭he important thing here is that having a pet in the house can be very positive for autistic children鈥檚 wellbeing,鈥� says Cusack.
Frontiers in Psychology
