File this under “Things That Make You Go Duh!” — scientists have finally come to the conclusion that the “slow blink” is a form of cat communication. As if any of you reading this didn’t know before — and haven’t been doing it for years. In fact, my human has known about it for a couple of decades.
Of course, it didn’t occur to the scientific community to look into this until recently. It was a team of psychologists from the Universities of Portsmouth and Sussex that put together the study. They published the results in nature.com’s scientific reports.
The experiment was done in two parts — one with cats and their humans, and one with the cats and a stranger (one of the researchers). The first part involved 21 cats from 14 households, and the second part included 24 additional cats. The findings were as follows:
- Cats slow blink at their humans most often when the humans slow blink at them first.
- When the stranger slow blinked at the cat, the cat would likely slow blink back.
- If the researcher held out a hand after slow blinking with a cat, the cat was more likely to accept the friendly solicitation than a stranger with a neutral expression.
While these results surprise no one, at least now there’s a paper about slow blinking! Just so you don’t feel like you’ve wasted your time reading this, here are some pro tips for slow blinking with your cat.
- Take a slow, relaxing breath before slow blinking. If you can put yourself into a sort of zen state before doing it, you will be in the optimum frame of mind.
- You don’t have to smile with your mouth, but it helps if you smile with your heart.
- The blink should be deliberate. The first time my human read about doing it was in the first edition of Anitra Frazier’s The Natural Cat (Amazon affiliate link). It was explained as a slow, three-part “I love you.” I: you look at the cat; love: you blink; you: you open your eyes.
- When you finish the blink, glance away. Continuing to stare is rude in cat language.
- If the cat blinks back, that’s ideal. But that doesn’t mean you should immediately go up to the cat and pick her up, pester her, or stick your hand in her face. Sometimes the greeting is nice enough. If you do want to see if you can have more interaction, hold out your hand passively. If the cat wants more, she will let you know.
I hope you enjoyed my tips! If you have any to add, or if you want to share some slow blink experiences, feel free to do so in the comments below.
My Kotoha often slow blinks at me. However, she responds differently when I slow blink at her. She actually can get a little aggressive. Maybe it’s just rough play, but she puts her ears back and sometimes bats at me with her claws. Yet then she’ll come back and slow blink at me again – purring and wanting to cuddle. It’s strange.
We discovered that out our cats would slow blink back at us so many decades ago that I can’t recall the exact circumstances. We’ve had many such exchanges with many kitties over the years. I also saw it noted in many books about cats. I’m actually glad to see science catching up! Or should that be cat-ching up, LOL.
Mee nevurr slo-blinked till mee met LadyMew an it tooked monthss fore mee to even try it.
Butt this yeer mee has bin slo-blinkin alot!! Iss so nice to trust a Hu’man this much! 😉
**purrss** BellaDharma
MK does that with us. She says it’s kinda cool knowing she is directly communicating with us.
Purrz!
Selina
Great tips, Summer! We’re all about the slow blinks here, and also with the cats at PAWS. 🙂
I actually learned this from watching Jackson Galaxy on “My cat from hell”
Luckily I’ve never experienced a cat from hell, although some of his “patients” were very difficult but most always there was a good reason for the behavior. It’s amazing how little some cat owners have no clue about cats
So sweet <3
Well Angel Sammy and Mom did the slow blink communication all the time……..up until the very end in fact. I do that with my Mom once in a while – especially from WAY across the room. We are definitely “in tune” !!
Hugs, Teddy
This is really interesting…
I’ll bet they got the idea for the research from your blog. TW thinks she has to slow blink over and over. Hear that, TW, you only blink ONCE!
I think all us cat lovers already knew this, no experiments needed. 🙂
Brian’s comment is funny! I’ve tried slow blinking with Raven but she doesn’t care. Maybe she doesn’t feel the need to greet me. Maybe she’s wondering why I’m trying to be cat.
So fascinating! Thanks for the info!
It took the scientists long enough to work that out!
Confirmation is good, but really, it took them that long to even do a study?? Yup, Duh is right!! MOL!
32 years of slow blinking to our kitties is now scientific…hah-hah!!
We loved your tips. Especially “smile with your heart. “
I have two versions of Anitra Frazier’s “The Natural Cat”, and use it as resource material all of the time!
I knew about the slow blink but I wasn’t sure what
the blink was supposed to mean. I also knew about
the rudeness of staring. It’s nice to have those
things confirmed.
We were also surprised to read this. Our #1 has also known about slow blinking for a long, long time. She says it is like blowing softly into a horse’s nostrils. Everyone knows about it except scientists!
Purrs,
Tama and Genji
Someone needs to study the scientists to figure out why they are so slow to catch on!
It’s cool that it is now scientifically proven. Mom has that book!
The Florida Furkids
Well, I guess there’s a study done for just about anything, isn’t there? My definition of slow blinking is what dad does as soon as he sits down at the end of a tiring workday. All it takes is either turning on the television or picking up his book to try to read and on comes the slow blink. Until his eyes close for the night. Or mom smacks him to wake up.
Great information as usual Summer! <3
I am ALWAYS slow blinking my momma. Like always. Sometimes when she’s trying to get an eyes open photo too. 😉
I’ve long wondered if our cats get the message when I slow blink at them – or if they just think I have something in my eye. Not looking away afterward seems aggressive! Talk about mixed messages!
I am not surprised that scientists are looking at this.
We cats have so many types of body language and communication 😉
Purrs, Julie
The things scientist do! well, at least it’s now official!