You’ve probably noticed that funny blink or wink of cats at least once in a while. And yes, they can still blink one eye 🐱.
Cats certainly have a reputation for being more restrained animals, especially when compared to dogs. However, if you find that your feline friend is a little difficult to communicate with, it could be that you just don’t speak their language.
Do not be afraid – a new study has found that it’s not that difficult. You just need to smile at them more 😺. Not the human way, by baring their teeth, but the feline way, by narrowing their eyes and blinking slowly.
By observing the interaction between cats and humans, scientists were able to confirm that this human expression makes cats – both familiar and unfamiliar – positively attuned to people.
«As someone who has studied animal behavior and is a cat owner, it is very gratifying to be able to show that cats and humans can communicate in this way», — says psychologist Karen McComb of the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom.
«This is something that many cat owners already suspected, so it’s very interesting to find confirmation of it».
Today is the day we’re going to talk about why cats blink or wink slowly.
Let’s go…
Your Cat’s Smile
If you’ve spent any time around cats, you’ve probably seen their “partially closed eyes” facial expressions accompanied by a slow blink.
This is similar to the way human eyes narrow when smiling and usually occurs when the cat is relaxed and content. This expression is interpreted as a kind of feline smile.
Cats are excellent communicators and have many ways to communicate.
For example, they communicate with humans mostly through their voices: think of that demanding or begging “meow”.
Additionally, they can communicate using their ears and tails, as well as by rubbing their pheromones into objects.
They can even communicate with their eyes, both with each other and with humans.
Think of that shot from Shrek. It’s for a reason, isn’t it?)))
In cats, closing their eyes in the presence of others is a sign of trust and that they can be trusted. It is a way of communicating that they are not hostile and that they are not a threat.
When your pet slowly closes his eyes, he is showing contentment, security, and relaxation. It’s the closest thing to a cat’s Duchenne smile. And when you blink slowly at your cat, you are smiling back at her.
Duchenne Smile in Cats
A few years ago, there was a trend to test the theory that you could tell whether a smile was real or fake by the eyes.
Squinted, wrinkled eyes meant that the smile was genuine, while eyes without wrinkles indicated that the smile was not genuine.
According to the American Psychological Association, a Duchenne smile is defined as a smile that involves the muscles surrounding the eyes as well as the lifting of the lips.
Murmeo Comment! What is a Duchenne smile? It is a real smile that involves the work of the muscles around the eyes, which are much harder to control. Therefore, such a smile is almost impossible to “fake”.
Duchenne smiles are believed to be genuine smiles as opposed to staged smiles, which lack the circular muscle component of the eye.
The Duchenne smile is a popular study of human psychology. But it turns out that cats have their ways of smiling, too. And that includes expressing and reading emotion in their eyes.
Experiments With Cat Blinking
Unconfirmed evidence from cat owners hints that humans may copy some blinking behavior to tell cats that we are friendly and open to interaction.
And so, a team of psychologists designed two experiments to determine how cats would behave when blinked at by their owners or strangers.
A groundbreaking study published in the 2020 issue of Scientific Reports found that slow blinking is a form of positive communication between cats and humans.
The researchers conducted two experiments:
- Involving 21 cats and their owners from 14 families;
- Involving 24 different cats from eight families and unfamiliar people. The people who participated in the second experiment had no previous contact with the cats. And when they blinked slowly at the cats, they also reached out to them and gave them a hand.
Results of the first experiment (with cat owners)
In the first experiment, pet owners slowly blinked their cats.
Once the cat was comfortable in its home environment, the owners were asked to sit about a meter away from the cat and blink slowly as the cat looked at them.
Cameras recorded both the owner’s face and the cat’s face. And then the results were compared to how cats blink without human input.
The researchers noted that the cats blinked slower to their owners as a response to the same blink from their owners.
The results showed that cats were more likely to blink slowly in response to their owners compared to a normal setting.
Results of the second experiment (with unfamiliar people)
The second experiment included 24 cats from eight different families.
This time it was not the owners who blinked, but researchers who had not previously had contact with the cat.
As a control, it was recorded how the cats responded to the “don’t blink” condition when people simply looked at them.
The researchers performed the same slow blinking process as in the first experiment, adding an outstretched hand to the cat. And they found that the cats were not only more likely to blink in response but also more likely to move closer to the human’s hand after the human blinked.
«This study is the first experimental investigation of the role of slow blinking in cat-human communication», — McComb said.
It turns out that even when complete strangers blinked slowly at the cats, the cats also responded by narrowing their eyes.
By the way, you can try this experiment yourself with your own cat at home or even with cats you meet on the street.
And it’s a great way to strengthen your bond with animals! Smile at them and then close your eyes for a few seconds. And you’ll find that they react in the same way. And then you can start a conversation of sorts with them.
So Why Do Cats Blink Slowly in Response?
The results of the experiment confirmed that the slow blinking of cats seems to express positive emotions. Or maybe your cat is really happy – then you are just a super owner.
However, further research on this topic is needed to draw conclusive conclusions.
So far, it’s hard to understand why cats blink slowly back at humans. There may be several reasons for this:
- This can be as a means of signaling benevolent intentions, as cats are thought to interpret a continuous stare as a threat.
- But it’s also possible that cats have developed this behavior because humans themselves respond positively to blinking – it’s impossible to say unequivocally yet.
Anyway, it seems to help build rapport between us and the cats. And that’s something to be aware of.
Learning how to improve our relationship with these enigmatic animals can also be a way to improve their emotional health – not only in the home but also in several potentially stressful situations.
«Understanding the positive ways cats and humans interact can increase public understanding of cats, improve their well-being, and tell us more about the social and cognitive abilities of this understudied species», — psychology experts say.
This may be the first study of its kind to examine the role of slow blinking in feline-human communication. The results seem encouraging in that this behavior is indicative of positive feelings in cats.
“Such findings could potentially be used to assess cat well-being in a variety of settings, including veterinary practices and shelters, and to improve communication between cats and people in the home,” the researchers wrote, adding that this is still an understudied area.
Those of us who have lived or are living with cats for a long time know that look when our cats slowly close their eyes and show us an expression of complete contentment.
This look makes us feel happy and reminds us that we all need to relax and smile more.
Read more about cat behavior in our other content: 25 Fun Questions About Cat Behavior.
And yes, since we are cat owners ourselves, we did such an experiment with blinking too.
We have a feeling that it depends a bit on the age of the animal.
Our young cat completely ignores any blinking – perhaps he hasn’t yet realized what it would mean.
But our cat Malva (she is 6 years old) sometimes even blinks at us herself. Especially often it happens when she sits in a relaxed state somewhere on our scratching post. And of course, we always blink back at her – “Yes, hello, and I see you too” 🐱.
Have you tried blinking at your cat? If so, what was the animal’s reaction? Write in the comments – maybe your observations will be useful for our “cat community”.
