They’ve got a litter of intellect.

Research from the University of Texas has suggested that cat lovers show more mental prowess than dog lovers — a sentiment echoed by other experts.

“One source characterized ‘the canine person’ as loyal, direct, kind, faithful, utilitarian, helpful, and a team player and ‘the feline person’ as graceful, subtle, independent, intelligent, thoughtful, and mysterious,” the Texas research stated.

It also noted that cat lovers were especially prone to neuroticism as well.

A Turkish documentarian, Ceyda Torun, observed a similar phenomenon with the psyche of owners while making a film on cats — pinpointing one particular trait in kitty parents.

“Their capacity for philosophical thought and introspection,” she told The Guardian. “It didn’t matter where they were from, or what level of education they had. You could see it in their eyes. They had that flicker of light. The light was on.”

Torun also said that loving cats often coincides with a person’s creativity and impression of beauty.

“There is something very aesthetically pleasing about a cat,” she added. “That’s why most artists are drawn to cats. Painters and poets tend to have relationships with cats, rather than dogs. Any feline of any size has this graceful athleticism, this prowess, this physical superiority that you can sense.”

But what exactly makes loving a cat so different?

As Robert de Niro said in “Meet the Parents”: “A dog is very easy to break, but cats make you work for their affection.”

And that sentiment is corroborated by the editor-in-chief of “Your Cat“ magazine, James Buzzel.

“They aren’t desperate to please you,” he told The Guardian. “So when they do come and sit on your lap, it’s an absolute honor.”

John Gray, who authored “Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life,” also explained how the “limit of cat attachment” halts their own human kin.

“Cats can grow fond of the company of particular humans. But they don’t need them,” he said. ”When a cat is tired of a human being … they don’t recriminate. They don’t try to change the human being. They just leave.”

Ultimately, it’s that cold-whisker behavior that separates wanting to love a cat vs. a dog, according to Gray.

“If you are the kind of person who wants to see the loyal, loving, trustworthy part of yourself in an animal, you will look to dogs,” he said. “If you want to see out of the human world, into another world, where a different animal lives without these defining human needs, you will love cats.”