The Human-Perro communicationand vice versa, it’s really simple. After thousands of years of domestication and coexistence, dogs and humans understand each other almost effortlessly. In fact, they have even Evolved your facial muscles and eyesTo be more expressive and communicate better with us. With cats, the thing changes.
We continue unraveling cat domestication And, although they are fully integrated into our homes, it is evident that there are still some Understanding problems. If you have a cat, you will know ‘talk’ with him and read his intentions, but that penetrating look is sometimes a mystery.
And that is when we blink slowly. And the cat imitates us. And the magic is done. The reason is that it is the equivalent of the human smile, at least that indicated in a study.
The cat smile
In 2020, a study called ‘The role of blinking of cats in communication between cats and humans’ explored how this usual gesture in felines is an interspecies communication method. If you have a cat, you will know what we are talking about: that moment in which the cat stares at you and, suddenly, flashes very slowly, as almost falling asleep to, then, to open your eyes fully.
He is not sleeping (well, sometimes yes), but trying to communicate with you. Karen McComb is a psychologist at Sussex University and commented that “it is something that many cat owners already They suspectedso it is exciting to have found evidence of it. ” To have that evidence, the team of psychologists did two experiments.
The first experiment included 21 cats (11 females and 10 males, aged between four months to 16 years) of 14 different homes. Its owners – 14 humans participated and the instruction was clear: when the cat had eaten in their family environment, the owners had to sit a meter away and slowly blink when the cat stared at them.
In the second, another 24 cats of eight different homes were included and there were two differences. The first and most obvious is that the owners were not on this occasion those who performed the flicker: it was the researchers. In addition, after blinking, they extended their hand towards the cats.
The tests were recorded, analyzed and the researchers They concluded that cats slowly blin into the initial flickering of humans and, in the case of flickers by the researchers, after the same, they used to approach them to interact with their hand. If they did not blink first, they were less likely to approach in a friendly way.
In addition, in the analysis of the recordings, they realized that the cats did not blink in the same way when they were alone or between them and when they were with a human who has slowly blink first. McComb’s conclusion is that it is something we can try with our cats at home, since “it is a great way to improve the link you have with it.” But … why?
Three reasons are considered. The first is pure and hard survival: a fixed look is a symptom that it is alert. The cat can also consider that you are, or you can be a threat, if you stare at it, without blinking or flickering quickly, so a slow blink interprets it as you are relaxed and, at the same time, he also lowers his guard. It’s like a friendly smile.
On the other hand, the researchers considered that it could be a form of imitation. It is not a secret that cats often imitate their owners and have actions that we consider funny, but that it is simply an attempt to copy human movements and actions. There are always doubts when it comes to animals such as cats and, above all, domesticatedbecause it is always possible that cats have developed that expression because humans respond emotionally when they do.
The third reason is that it may have been a technique that cats themselves have perfected to cut an intense, penetrating and potentially threatening look. If they blink slowly and returned the gesture, they interrupted an awkward situation.
Whatever, the researchers affirm that, whether it works as if not, it is interesting game hours or petting. And, evidently, it also has practical implications.
If we know that cats feel more comfortable in environments in which they feel that the human is not a threat, it is easier to work with them in shelters or veterinary centers. Although, of course, this depends a lot on the character of each feline.
As a contribution: I’ve been trying with my three cats for years. None have even paid me. Of course, as soon as I open a little latically, they magically communicate perfectly
Images | Nature, Sabri Tuzcu
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