Cats have a reputation for aloofness (and floofiness), but if you and your feline friend aren’t bonding, the problem might just be that you don’t speak their language.
Never fear – research shows it’s easier than you think. All you have to do is smile at them more – cat style. Not in the human way, showing your teeth, but narrowing your eyes and blinking slowly.
Observing cat-human interactions in 2020, scientists have confirmed that this simple gesture makes cats—both familiar and strange—closer and more engaged with humans.
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“As someone who has studied animal behavior and is a cat owner, it’s great to be able to demonstrate that cats and humans can communicate in this way,” said psychologist Karen McComb of the University of Sussex when the study was published.
“It’s something that many cat owners already suspected, so it’s exciting to have found evidence for it.”
Watch the video below for a summary of the research:
If you’ve spent any time around cats, you’ve probably seen the facial expressions of “partially closed eyes” accompanied by slow blinking. It’s similar to how people’s eyes narrow when they smile and usually occurs when the cat is relaxed and content. The expression is interpreted as a kind of cat smile.
Anecdotal evidence from cat owners has suggested that humans may copy this expression to communicate to cats that we are friendly and open to interaction. To test this idea, a team of psychologists conducted two experiments.
The first experiment involved 21 cats from 14 different households. Once the cat was settled and comfortable in one place in their home environment, their owners were instructed to stand about 1 meter (just over 3 feet) away and blink slowly when the cat looked at them.
The cameras recorded both the owner’s and the cat’s faces, and the results were compared to how cats blink without any human interaction.
The results showed that cats were more likely to slowly blink at their humans after their humans slowly blinked at them, compared to the no-interaction condition.
The second experiment included 24 cats from eight different households. This time, it wasn’t the owners who did the blinking, but the researchers, who had no previous contact with the cat. As a control, the cats were recorded responding to a no-blink condition in which humans looked at the cats without blinking.
The researchers performed the same slow-blinking process as the first experiment, adding a hand reaching towards the cat. And they found that not only were the cats more likely to blink back, but they were also more likely to approach the human’s hand after the human blinked.
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“This study is the first to experimentally investigate the role of slow blinking in cat-human communication,” said McComb.
“And it’s something you can try with your own cat at home or with cats you meet on the street. It’s a great way to increase the bond you have with cats.
“Try narrowing your eyes at them like you would in a relaxed smile, followed by closing your eyes for a few seconds. You’ll find they respond in kind, and you can start some sort of conversation.”
Related: Scientists Find Most Cats Sleep on Their Left Sides – This Could Be Why
Dogs can be a lot more excited than cats, but this news comes as no surprise to cat lovers. Research in recent years has shown that our feline friends are much more in tune with their human counterparts than previously thought, and that comparing them to dogs is a disservice.
Cats, for example, naturally respond to people who are receptive to them – so if cats are against it, that might be a problem for you, not the kitty.
Cats also echo the personality traits of the people they live with—this may be related to why cats seem to understand when their humans are sad.
They can also recognize their names (although they often choose to ignore them). And their bonds with their people are surprisingly deep.
It’s hard to know why cats blink slowly at humans like this. It has been interpreted as a means of signaling benign intent, as cats are thought to interpret unblinking gazes as threatening. But it’s also possible that cats developed the expression because humans respond positively to it. With domestic animals, it’s often impossible to tell.
In any case, it seems to help create a relationship. And that’s a good thing to know. Learning how to improve our relationships with these enigmatic animals could also be a way to improve their emotional health – not just in the home environment, but in a range of potentially stressful situations.
Related: Studies reveal the best ways to chemically bond with your cat
“Understanding the positive ways cats and people interact can improve public understanding of cats, improve feline welfare and tell us more about the socio-cognitive abilities of this understudied species,” said psychologist Tasmin Humphrey from the University of Sussex.
“Our findings could be used to assess the welfare of cats in a variety of settings, including veterinary practices and shelters.”
You’re going to try it right now, aren’t you?
The research was published in Scientific reports.
An earlier version of this article was published in October 2020.