* Adapted from Anna Ford’s article for the University of Sussex’s News Broadcast
A team of psychologists at the Universities of Sussex and Portsmouth have shown for the first time that it is possible to build rapport with a cat by using an eye narrowing technique with them.
This eye narrowing action by humans generates something popularly known as a cat smile – the so called “slow blink” – and seems to make the human more attractive to the cat.
The study found:
- Cats were more likely to slow blink at their owners if their owners had slowed blinked at them, compared to when the owner was present in the room but not delivering a slow blink stimulus.
- Cats were more likely to slow blink when an unfamiliar experimenter slow blinked at them, compared to when they had maintained a neutral expression.
- Cats preferred to approach an experimenter after they had slow blinked at the cat than if they had maintained a neutral expression.
To read the full article, click here.
happycats.london 