This Is the Most Effective Way to Get Your Cat’s Attention, Study Says

Have you ever tried to have a meaningful conversation with your cat? Maybe you wanted to get their advice on whether you should break up with someone or spring for that expensive area rug that will end up as a magnet for all their fur. They aren’t necessarily willing to give you their undivided attention (though they do want yours), but it turns out there a research-proven ways to get them to stop blowing you off — at least for a second or two.

A 2023 study found that certain methods are most effective at getting your cat's attention. They rated the communication tactics as “very high,” “high,” “medium,” and “very low.” Here were their findings:

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• Combined vocal and visual cues: very high

• Visual signals only: high

• Vocal signals only: medium

• No signal (very low)

Researchers at Paris Nanterre University’s Laboratory of Compared Ethology and Cognition, studied 12 cats at a cat cafe. Charlotte de Mouzon, who led the study, got the cats used to her presence and exposed them to different scenarios. When they entered a room, de Mouzon would interact with them in one of four ways: calling out to them without making a gesture; gestured toward them (i.e., extending her hand) without vocalizing; vocalizing toward them (she used the common French cat-calling sound ‘pff,’ ‘pff’; or she ignored them entirely.

The cats responded the fastest when de Mouzon spoke to them and extended a gesture. She said that she figured the cat cafe kitties would respond best when vocalizations were involved, because cats tend to like the special voices their humans use for them. (They especially like when people use a baby voice.) The fact that they respond to a gesture, combined with the call they recognize, shows that they are more responsive to their pet parents than to strangers, de Mouzon told Gizmodo.

“It shows that it’s not the same thing. It’s not the same for a cat to communicate with their owner as it is to communicate with an unfamiliar human,” she said. “It’s nice to have the results that you expect. But sometimes it’s also nice to have results that you don’t expect, because it makes you think and form new hypotheses that try to get at what’s really going on.”

The study also found that cats tended to wag their tails more when they were ignored; in cats, tail-wagging can be a sign of stress or irritation. So, it turns out they don’t like it when you ignore them (that’s for them to do to you, remember?).