Science

Presentation: The Science Behind Cat Color, Personality Traits and Intelligence

Thursday, 7/23/2026
6:00 - 7:30
Koret Auditorium
Main Library

100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
United States

415-557-4400

Learn more about the science behind cat behavior including the relationship among cat color, personality traits and intelligence from Karol Maybury, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Maine at Farmington and co-founder of the Maine Cat Lab.

Over the past 2 years, Maybury and co-researcher Bryce Cundick, MLS, of the Maine Cat Lab, with the help of 8,000 cat owners, have assessed almost 9,000 cats on feline personality traits and intelligence. The researchers sought to test common assumptions about cat color and traits such as agreeableness, extraversion, and neuroticism. Their findings confirmed some common beliefs: orange cats trended as most agreeable and extraverted; they also tended to score statistically lower on intelligence tests. Note: there were many individual exceptions to the group trends. Tuxedos scored higher than average on intelligence, and tortoiseshells scored lowest in agreeableness and were most introverted.

The researchers studied Maine Coon, Ragdoll, Black, Gray, White, Calico, Tortoiseshell, Siamese and Tuxedo cats as well as some others. 

The Maine Cat Lab is a research group based in Western Maine, dedicated to studying feline behavior, cognition, and human–cat interaction.


 

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This program is sponsored by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

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This program will be conducted in English unless otherwise noted.

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