How Slow Blinking Helps You Bond With Cats

Cats are known for being aloof (and fluffy), but if you and your feline companion are struggling to bond, it may simply be that you are not speaking their language.

Fortunately, research suggests the solution is easier than you might think. You just need to smile at them more often – the feline way.

Rather than showing your teeth as a human might, narrow your eyes and blink slowly.

By watching interactions between cats and humans, scientists confirmed that this simple gesture makes both familiar and unfamiliar cats more inclined to approach and engage with people.

“As someone who has both studied animal behaviour 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.”

Watch the video below for a summary of the research:

Slow blinking and the cat smile

If you have spent time with cats, you have probably noticed their ‘partially closed eyes’ expression, often accompanied by slow blinks.

The look resembles the way human eyes narrow during a smile. It usually appears when a cat is relaxed and content, and is interpreted as a kind of feline smile.

Cat owners' anecdotal observations have suggested that people can mimic the expression to show cats they are friendly and willing to interact. A team of psychologists put the idea to the test in two experiments.

How the cat slow-blinking experiments worked

The first experiment involved 21 cats from 14 different households. Once each cat had settled comfortably in a spot at home, its owner was asked to sit about 1 metre away and blink slowly while the cat was looking at them.

Cameras filmed the faces of both owner and cat. The researchers then compared the results with the way cats blinked when there was no human interaction.

They found that cats were more likely to slow blink at their owners after their owners had slow blinked at them than in the no-interaction condition.

The second experiment involved 24 cats from eight different households. This time, researchers who had not previously met the cats did the blinking instead of the owners. For comparison, the cats were also filmed in a no-blink condition, with people staring at them without blinking.

The researchers repeated the slow-blinking procedure from the first experiment, but also held out a hand towards each cat. They found that the cats were not only more likely to blink back after a person blinked, but also more likely to approach the outstretched hand.

“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.”

Cat behaviour and bonds with humans

Dogs may express themselves with much greater enthusiasm than cats, but cat lovers are unlikely to be surprised by the findings. Recent research has shown that cats are more attuned to the people they share a home with than was once thought, and that comparing them with dogs does them a disservice.

For instance, cats respond in kind to people who are receptive to them. If cats seem stand-offish to you, then, the issue might lie with you rather than the cat.

Cats also reflect the personality traits of the people they live with, which may be connected to their apparent ability to notice when their humans are sad.

They can recognise their own names too, although they often choose to ignore them. Their bonds with humans are also surprisingly deep.

Why cats slow blink at people in this way is difficult to establish. One interpretation is that the gesture signals benign intentions, as cats are thought to regard an unbroken stare as threatening.

It is also possible, however, that cats developed the expression because people respond positively to it. With domesticated animals, it is often impossible to know for certain.

Whatever the reason, slow blinking does appear to help build rapport. That is useful to know: improving our relationships with these enigmatic animals could also support their emotional health, not only at home but in a range of potentially stressful situations.

“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,” said University of Sussex psychologist Tasmin Humphrey.

“Our findings could potentially 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.