Cats meeting new people

Question
I'm curious about why it is that when a new guest would come inside my house, my cat would be so eager to see them and meet them, wanna be pet etc., but outside he'd run from people he doesn't know?

I know the answer to this for dogs is because the dog can recognize when his owner identifies someone as not being a threat and wont attack, but do cats even think in that same manner?

Answer
Jimmy,

No, cats don't think (at least in our terms of thinking) nor do they have any reasoning ability. They go by smells, association, and habit. (Personally, I think they have some sort of screwed up thought process that only makes sense to them, and MAYBE to another cat)

Your cat feels safe and secure in 'his' territory (the house) when meeting people, but outside he is in the open and therefore vulnerable.

Cats recognize voices, not people by sight, so when the person comes into the house he may either recognize their voice or the tone of voice. Plus he associates a person coming into the home as non-threatening (since nothing, I imagine, has ever happened inside the home to scare the cat). But outside the person may come up to him, or near him, without saying anything first in which case he would run because he doesn't know yet whether it is friend or foe and outside is not a 'safe zone' like the house is.

Inside it may be also that your cat wants to meet the new person or be petted by them so he has the opportuniy to get close to the person to check out their 'smells' (especially if they have animals).

Sorry if I totally confused you with the answer but I hope I didn't (at least not TOO bad)

Tabbi