How
to build rap-paw* with your cat
University
of Sussex
A
team of psychologists at the Universities of Sussex and Portsmouth have
purr-fected* the art of building a bond with cats.
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.
Taken together, the study shows that this
slow blinking technique can provide a form of positive communication between
cats and humans.
* EDITOR'S NOTE: I did not come up with the bad pun in the sub-heading and text. Out of respect for our British colleagues, I left their original title in. I also did not change their odd way of spelling some words such as "behaviour." - W. Collette
