A study conducted by a team from Kyoto University and published on 16 October 2026 in the journal iScience showed that cat owners who spend more time in direct proximity to their pets more often report a positive mood. The scientists, led by Saho Takagi, studied the daily interaction of 19 owners and 29 of their cats over the course of a month, using Bluetooth beacons on the animals' collars to measure physical proximity, urine tests to assess hormone levels, and questionnaires to evaluate the owners' mood.
The results revealed a hormonal link between cats and people: the oxytocin concentration in cats' urine correlated positively with the level of this hormone in the owners, and higher oxytocin readings in the animals were associated with lower cortisol levels and fewer negative emotions in the owners. At the same time, the cats' oxytocin level turned out to be more strongly linked to the owners' negative states than the people's own oxytocin.
The owners' positive mood did not depend on how many years they had lived with the cat, but correlated directly with the total time of physical proximity. The researchers noted that it is precisely daily interaction — when a cat climbs onto one's lap, the owner strokes it, and the animal purrs — that reflects this hormonal link through oxytocin, which is involved in the formation of social attachments.
The methodology included observation of cats' behavior toward owners and strangers, as well as hormonal analysis, which made it possible to separate the effect of relationship quality from the mere fact of owning an animal. Previous studies had produced contradictory results precisely because they did not take into account how closely people and cats interact in everyday life.
The authors emphasize that the work shows only associations, not cause-and-effect relationships, and they plan in the future to study more deeply the mutual influence of cats and people through daily interactions. For owners, this means that the benefit from a cat depends not on the mere fact of its presence in the home, but on how much time they spend near it.
