Cats Can Read Human Emotions Through Facial Expressions

If you have spent much time on the internet, you'll know at least one thing: our species loves cats.
How they feel about us is much less clear. Compared to our devoted dogs, cats seem pretty unconcerned with human affairs.
But it looks like our feline companions pay more attention than we give them credit for. They seem to be able to tell when we are happy.
New research has found the first strong evidence that cats are sensitive to human emotional gestures.

Moriah Galvan and Jennifer Vonk of Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, US studied 12 cats and their owners. They found that the animals behaved differently when their owner was smiling compared to when they were frowning.
When faced with a smiling owner, the cats were significantly more likely to perform "positive" behaviours such as purring, rubbing or sitting on their owner's lap. They also seemed to want to spend more time close to their owner when they were smiling than when the owner was frowning.
The pattern was completely different when the 12 cats were presented with strangers, instead of their owners. In this setup, they showed the same amount of positive behaviour, regardless of whether the person was smiling or frowning.
The results suggest two things: cats can read human facial expressions, and they learn this ability over time.