Scientists told about a way to start a confidential communication with a cat

If you often spend time with a cat, you have probably seen a slightly squinted expression on her face with almost closed eyes, interrupted by slow blinking. This usually happens when the pet is relaxed and content, and is similar to how human eyes narrow when smiling.

This expression is interpreted as a kind of "cat smile". In a study published in 2020, scientists were able to confirm that this act of slow blinking makes animals - both familiar and unfamiliar - come into contact with people and be more to them gullible.

In the new research scientists decided to test it. A group of psychologists designed two experiments to determine how these activities affect cats in different settings.

In the first experiment, cat owners interacted with 21 pets from 14 different households. Once the cat was comfortable in her home environment, the owners were asked to sit about a meter away from her and blink slowly when the cat looked at them.

The cameras recorded both the face of the owner of the animal and the muzzle of the cat. The results were compared with how pets blink without human intervention. It turned out that animals do blink more often when people nearby do the same.

The second experiment included 24 cats from eight different households. This time, it was not the owners who blinked, but the researchers, who had not been in contact with the animals before. They performed the same slow blinking process as in the first experiment while holding out their hand to the cat.

Was discoveredthat the animals were not only more likely to blink in response, but also more likely to approach a person's hand after the person blinked.

The authors of the work believe that these results prove the important role of blinking and smiling when communicating with animals.