If your cat seems a bit distant, the fix might be as simple as a slow blink.
Research published in 2020 found that cats are more likely to approach and engage with people who narrow their eyes and blink slowly at them, a facial expression often described as a cat smile.
“As someone who has both studied animal behavior and is a cat owner, it’s great to be able to show that cats and humans can communicate in this way,” University of Sussex psychologist Karen McComb said when the study was published in 2020.
“It’s something that many cat owners had already suspected, so it’s exciting to have found evidence for it.”
Scientists looked at cat-human interactions in two experiments. In the first, 21 cats from 14 households were observed in their home environment. Once a cat was settled in one spot, its owner sat about 1 meter away and slow blinked when the cat looked at them. Cameras recorded both faces, and the results were compared with a no-interaction condition.
The researchers found cats were more likely to slow blink at their owners after their owners slow blinked at them.
In the second experiment, 24 cats from eight households were observed with researchers who had no prior contact with them. For the control, the cats were recorded in a no-blink condition, where humans stared at them without blinking. The researchers then repeated the slow-blink process and added an extended hand toward the cat.
They found the cats were more likely to blink back and more likely to approach the human’s hand after the human blinked.
“This study is the first to experimentally investigate the role of slow blinking in cat-human communication,” McComb said.
“And it is something you can try yourself with your own cat at home or with cats you meet in the street. It’s a great way of enhancing the bond you have with cats.
“Try narrowing your eyes at them as you would in a relaxed smile, followed by closing your eyes for a couple of seconds. You’ll find they respond in the same way themselves, and you can start a sort of conversation.”
The article says cats’ partially closed eyes and slow blinking are usually seen when they are relaxed and content. It also says the expression has been interpreted as a way of signaling benign intentions, because cats are thought to read unbroken staring as threatening.
The research was published in Scientific Reports. University of Sussex psychologist Tasmin Humphrey said the findings could help improve feline welfare.
“Understanding positive ways in which cats and humans interact can enhance public understanding of cats, improve feline welfare, and tell us more about the socio-cognitive abilities of this understudied species,” Humphrey said.
“Our findings could potentially be used to assess the welfare of cats in a variety of settings, including veterinary practices and shelters.”
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