It has not been established that cats think humans are other cats. Using similar social behaviors with humans and fellow cats does not, by itself, reveal how cats categorize our species.
In a 2014 interview, behavior researcher John Bradshaw described cats rubbing against people, raising their tails and grooming them using behaviors also directed toward other cats. He emphasized behavioral similarities and acknowledged that more research was needed to understand what cats think about us.
Independent experiments show that cats respond to human slow blinking and can mentally track an unseen owner's location from their voice. These findings demonstrate aspects of cat-human communication and social cognition, but neither study tested whether cats classify humans as cats. The literal claim therefore remains unverified rather than proven true or false.
Treating people with feline social signals is not proof that cats mistake humans for cats.
John Bradshaw, interviewed by National Geographic
Bradshaw described similarities between cats' behavior toward humans and other cats, while acknowledging uncertainty about what cats think of people. This is an expert interpretation of behavior.
Based on: National Geographic
Humphrey and colleagues
Experiments found that cats responded to human slow blinks with eye narrowing and were more likely to approach an experimenter after slow blinking. The study examined communication, not whether humans are perceived as cats.
Based on: Scientific Reports
Takagi and colleagues
Playback experiments suggested that cats represent their unseen owner's location using the owner's voice. This supports social cognition about familiar people without establishing how cats categorize human species identity.
Based on: PLOS ONE
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