It's bad news for cat owners, male cat owners, that is. A new study from the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University reveals that women are less likely to swipe right on a guy holding a cat in his online dating profile.
The purr-pose of the study was to determine whether women consider men more attractive when they post photos of themselves with a cat or by themselves. Researchers conducted the study with past studies in mind, which suggested pet owners are more attractive than non-pet owners. Since most of the previous studies involved dogs, researchers hypothesized that women would find cat owners more attractive than non-cat owners.
Much to the chagrin of cat lovers, however, researchers found that women don't perceive male cat owners as attractive compared to their non-cat owner counterparts. It's unexpected, if you ask me, as I think cats are rather cool. However, the data didn't agree with me: more women viewed male cat owners as less masculine and dateable, albeit more neurotic, open, and agreeable.
As a matchmaker, the significant difference in the way women perceive men with cats raises the question of whether men should be forthcoming about their feline friends. Should a man lie about (or not mention) his cat in his online dating profile if it's, as it appears from the study, a dealbreaker for a significant margin of women?
My instinct is always to tell the truth about yourself and not be misleading, especially when it comes to dating. So I must disavow actively lying about aspects of your identity, including owning a cat. After all, you can't build a relationship based on lies. Even a seemingly innocuous lie, such as saying you don't have a cat when you do, could shatter the foundation of trust in your relationship when, ahem, you finally let the cat out of the bag.
However, I don't think you need to decorate your profile picture with cat photos, either. I often use online dating in conjunction with matchmaking, so I like to draw parallels between online dating profiles and meeting for the first time in real life. Picture the situation: you are a male cat owner, and you're at a bar. You meet a woman, and what is the first thing that comes out of your mouth? Probably not, "I have a cat!"
It's more likely the situation would play out with you revealing organically in a conversation that you, indeed, own a cat. On the other hand, actively hiding that you have a cat is a red flag and suggests pet ownership may not be the only thing about which you're lying. When it comes to online dating, I don't believe you must disclose that you own a cat in your profile like you would your single status, but I think cat ownership is a relevant detail you should be forthcoming about when you start dating.
If, after reading this study, you still want to include a picture of you with your cat in your online dating profile, then more power to you. Go for it. Owning a cat doesn't mean no woman will want to go out with you, only ones who dislike cats or, cat-egorically, hate them, in which case you wouldn't want to date those women anyway.
Whether you like dogs, cats, or pistachio ice cream, your online dating profile should be an accurate representation of who you are. If owning a cat is an integral part of your identity that you'd like to share, you should be proud to share it. Not to mention, Jon Arbuckle, Garfield's owner, met the love of his life as a result of cat ownership—he first dated veterinarian, Dr. Liz Wilson, in the comic strip and got engaged to her in the live-action film, "Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties," years later.
Who knows, the purr-fect Hollywood ending may be in store for you, too.