How to greet a cat
A briefly indicated closing of the eyes - this is how cats communicate a friendly attitude. If you want to return the greeting, you should blink back.
Cats do not smile. On the contrary, like most animals, they see showing their teeth as an aggressive signal. Just like staring with their eyes open, by the way. On the other hand, anyone who closes their eyes demonstratively or narrows them to slits and looks away is communicating an explicitly non-aggressive attitude - at least among cats, as experts have long known.
Researchers led by Tasmin Humphrey from the University of Sussex have now discovered that humans can also utilise this cat-specific variant of the smile. In their article in the journal "Scientific Reports", the animal psychologists describe an experiment in which a human approached 24 domestic cats, sometimes blinking and sometimes not. An observer recorded whether the four-legged friends then approached the experimenter, who invited the cats to do so with an outstretched palm. Humphrey and his team write that this was indeed the case more often than expected when the human slowly blinked at the cat beforehand.
This is the first scientific study to confirm the experiences of many cat connoisseurs who claim to have successfully used the cat smile themselves. The effect of the signal was also confirmed in a second experiment, for which the researchers analysed the interaction of the animal with its sometimes blinking, sometimes non-blinking human roommate.
Of course, slow blinking only works as a supplement to an overall cat-friendly demeanour. However, according to the researchers, it can be worthwhile to consciously use the signal once in order to establish a positive emotional relationship with a cat or, conversely, to find out the cat's state of mind. If it feels good, it shows a blinking sequence in the course of which it half-closes its eyes several times in succession and then forms slits or closes them completely for a longer moment.
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