How Slow Blinking Can Help You Bond With Cats

Cats have a reputation for being aloof (and fluffy), but if you and your feline companion are struggling to connect, it may simply be that you aren't speaking their language.

Fortunately, research suggests the solution is easier than you might imagine: smile at them more often, the cat way.

That doesn't mean showing your teeth as a human would. Instead, narrow your eyes and blink slowly.

By watching interactions between cats and humans, scientists confirmed that this simple gesture makes cats more likely to approach and engage with people, whether they know them or not.

"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:

How cats use slow blinking

If you've spent time with cats, you've probably noticed their partially closed eyes and the slow blinks that go with the expression.

It resembles the way human eyes narrow during a smile and usually happens when a cat feels relaxed and content. The expression is understood as a sort of feline smile.

Cat owners' anecdotal accounts have suggested that people can imitate it to show cats they are friendly and willing to interact. A team of psychologists carried out two experiments to put that idea to the test.

The cat slow-blink experiments

The first experiment involved 21 cats from 14 households. After each cat had settled comfortably in a spot at home, its owner was asked to sit around 1 metre away and blink slowly whenever the cat looked at them.

Cameras captured the faces of both owner and cat. The researchers then compared the recordings with how cats blinked when there was no human interaction.

Cats were more likely to blink slowly at their owners after their owners had done the same to them than they were in the no-interaction condition.

The second experiment involved 24 cats from eight households. This time, researchers who had never previously met the cats did the blinking rather than their owners. For the control condition, the cats were recorded responding to people who stared at them without blinking.

The researchers repeated the slow-blinking procedure from the first experiment, this time extending a hand towards each cat as well. They found that cats were not only more likely to blink back after a person blinked, but also more likely to approach the person's 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."

Cats and their relationships with humans

Dogs may show their feelings far more enthusiastically than cats, but cat lovers are unlikely to be surprised by the findings. Recent research has shown that cats are much more attuned to the people they live with than previously thought, and that comparing them with dogs does them a disservice.

For instance, cats respond positively to people who are receptive to them. So, if cats seem standoffish to you, the problem may lie with you rather than the cat.

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

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

Why cats blink slowly at people in this way is difficult to establish. One interpretation is that it signals harmless intentions, as cats are thought to regard an unbroken stare as threatening.

Another possibility is that cats developed the expression because people react positively to it. With domesticated animals, it is often impossible to know for certain.

Either way, the gesture does appear to help build rapport, which is useful to know. Finding ways to improve our relationships with these enigmatic animals could also help their emotional health, both at home and 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 give it a try right now, aren't you?

The research was published in Scientific Reports.

An earlier version of this article appeared in October 2020.