Cats are usually considered to be quite alienated animals, who are not always favorable to social interaction. However, it may be that they have their own language of communication that people do not understand.
According to research conducted in 2020, it turned out that communication with cats may not be as difficult as it might seem at first glance. All you need to do is to be as smile at pets, however, not with the usual human smile, but in a cat-like manner. To do this, you need a little squint and slowly blink. By observing the interaction between cats and people, scientists have realized that it is this facial expression that makes familiar and unfamiliar cats approach people and be more affectionate towards them.
Those who have spent enough time with cats have often noticed the expression on their faces with partially closed eyes and slow blinking. This is what can be called a cat’s smile. Referring to cat owners, the researchers noted that humans are able to copy this smile.
In this regard, a group of psychologists designed two experiments to find out whether cats behave differently when people squint and blink slowly when they are around them. In the first experiment, cat owners blinked slowly while looking at 21 cats from 14 different homes.The owners had to sit at a distance of about 1 meter and blink slowly when the cat looked at them.
The cameras recorded the owners’ facial expressions and the cats’ reactions.The results were compared to how cats blink in the absence of human interaction.The results showed that cats are more likely to blink slowly when looking at their owners if they blink similarly when looking at them.
The second experiment involved 24 cats from 8 different homes. This time, however, it was not the owners of the animals who blinked and squinted slowly, but the researchers themselves, who had not previously come into contact with these cats. They also recorded the cats’ reactions to the facial expressions of a person who did not blink while looking at them.
The researchers not only squinted and blinked slowly, but also extended their hands to the cats. It turned out that the cats not only blinked back more often, but also approached the outstretched hand of the person who was blinking at them more often.
«This study is the first to experimentally examine the role of slow blinking in communication between cats and humans. And it’s something you can try to do with your own cat at home or with cats you meet on the street. It’s a great way to strengthen the bond you have with cats. Try squinting at them as if you were smiling calmly, and then close your eyes for a couple of seconds. You will find that they themselves react in the same way, and you can start a kind of conversation», — persuades psychologist at the University of Sussex Karen McComb.
It has been proven, that cats answer in the same way people who show affection for them. If your cat is acting reserved towards you, you may be the one with the problem, not the cat. Cats also copy their owners’ personality traits, and this helps them understand when their owners are sad or in a bad mood.
Slow blinking is a sign of a cat’s good intentions, as it is believed that these animals perceive scrutiny as a threat But it is also possible that cats have developed this expression because humans respond positively to it. With domesticated animals, it is often impossible to tell.
Hundreds of facial expressions: cats imitate each other’s facial expressions to make friends
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