There's a common stereotype about America's favorite household pets: Dogs will love you unconditionally, and cats couldn't care less if you died as long as they get fed (horrifying aside: For some cats, sometimes that's the same thing). Contrary to the protests of feline fanatics everywhere, the stereotypes are actually on point. While cats may look all fuzzy and adorable on the outside, research shows that they really are the cold, unfeeling monsters the world thinks they are. Experiments by the University of Lincoln in the U.K. found that cats just don't love their owners back in the way that dogs do. This can likely be explained by the animals' respective evolutionary histories with humans. Mankind's domestication of dogs may have begun as long as 32,000 years ago, explaining our close relationship with canines — both species have evolved together over millennia. Meanwhile, cats have only been cohabiting with humans for 9,000 years, and much of that was spent lurking in doorways and eating the rats that followed our messy forbears — hardly as rapport-building as hunting, eating and sleeping side by side. But are there any good words for cats? Are they as black and heartless as studies have shown? Let's try to find out!