No, seriously. There was research conducted recently that talked about how eye-narrowing behavior towards the cat tends to make the cat “smile” or blink its eyes. The article, entitled “The role of cat eye narrowing movements in cat-human communication” was published in a recent issue of the Nature journal called Scientific Reports.
Under the leadership of Dr. Tasmin Humphrey and Professor Karen McComb, animal behavior scientists at the University of Sussex, their research team conducted two experiments. The first revealed that cats have a tendency to slow blink more at their owners if the owners have slow blinked at them, compared to not interacting with them at all.
The second experiment was similar but with a twist. This time, instead of the owner, it was a stranger, as they hired someone from the Psychology department to take part in the experiment. It found similar results, where the cats tend to respond more to the outstretched hand of a blinking person than someone with just a neutral expression.
The authors of the article said in a press conference with the University of Sussex that they are happy to be able to share these results and prove something that cat owners have been suspecting for a while now.
Many cat-human relationships are surely going to be improved thanks to this study, which are sure to make our feline friend quite happy.
Reference:
Humphrey, T., Proops, L., Forman, J., Spooner, R., & McComb, K. (2020). The role of cat eye narrowing movements in cat–human communication. Scientific Reports, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73426-0
