Dog People vs. Cat People

Jan 15th 2010

Coke vs. Pepsi. Red states vs. blue states. Team Conan vs. Team Leno. Americans never tire of ways to categorize themselves. Recently, science has taken a closer look at one of the most classic of rivalries: Dog people vs. cat people.

In a recent online questionnaire titled the Gosling-Potter Internet Personality Project, a group of researchers, led by psychologist Sam Gosling at the University of Texas at Austin, asked thousands of volunteer participants to gauge their own personality traits in five areas: extroversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness. Respondents also were asked whether they considered themselves to be cat people or dog people.

Those who identified themselves as "dog people" were likelier to score high in the extroversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness columns. "Cat people," on the other hand, ranked higher in both neuroticism and openness, which in the context of the study meant being creative, quirky and contemplative.

"Once you know the findings, it kind of falls into place," Gosling recently told CNN. "Agreeableness and extroversion -- dogs are companionable, they hang out, they like to be with you, they like your company, whereas cats like it for as long as they want it, and then they're off."