Feline friendly? How to build rap-paw with your cat - new psychology study

Maine Coon demonstrates the eye narrowing technique (credit: Prof Karen McComb, University of Sussex) The new study, 'The role of cat eye narrowing movements in cat-human communication' , published online in the Nature journal Scientific Reports , has 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. Eye narrowing movements in cats have some parallels with the genuine smile in humans (the Duchenne smile), as well as eye narrowing movements given in positive situations in some other species. The team, led by Dr Tasmin Humphrey and Professor Karen McComb , animal behaviour scientists at the University of Sussex, undertook two experiments. The first revealed that cats are more likely to slow blink at their owners after their owners have slow blinked at them, compared to when they don't interact at all. The second experiment, this time with a researcher from the psychology team, rather than the owner, found that the cats were more likely to approach the experimenter's outstretched hand after they'd slow blinked at the cat, compared to when they had adopted a neutral expression. 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.