Want to bond more with your cat? Do this.

Cats can be flighty animals, and winning their affection isn’t always easy. If you want to form a better connection with your pet, new research suggest you can bond with them by blinking slowly with them.

You’ve probably had a cat looking at you sleepily with those long, heavy blinks that almost make you want to yawn. Those blinks however, may actually be a form of communication meant to form positive bonds with you.

If you’ve spent a lot of time with cats, you’re probably already very familiar with those special blinks cats tend to give, and it probably doesn’t surprise you that cats enjoy this kind of blinking. Cat owners have long been aware of this phenomenon, but very little research has ever been done on the blink and what it truly means from the cat’s perspective.

Cats like slow blinks

According to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, that slow blink is a sign of trust and comfort. When you slow blink back, you are telling them that you trust and are comfortable around your pet. Researchers don’t believe that the blink means “I love you” or is a sign of affection, but simply a sign of trust.

In order to find out how cats reacted to humans slow blinking at them ranging from strangers to their owners, the researchers set up a trial to divide the two. In the trial, a group of 21 cats from 14 households were videotaped while they watched their owner slow blink with no one else in the room.

The process was repeated again with researchers in the room, but not doing anything. Finally, the process was repeated again with a different set of 24 cats, but this time the research was the one doing the slow blink vs a neutral expression. After each expression the researchers would then extend a hand toward the cat.

The research found that slow blinking is an effective form of communication with cats. The cats were more likely to slow blink back if their owners did it first, and in the trials with the researchers (Who were strangers) a cat was more likely to approach the extended hand of a researcher who had slow blinked first.

More research is needed

Although this study clearly showed cats respond to slow blinking, it’s not yet clear why. One theory is that when a person is slow blinking, they’re not staring hard at the cat—something cats view as aggressive.

Regardless, if you want to bond more with your pet, or even make friends with someone else’s cat, you now have a new tool in your arsenal to do so. The researchers recommend that you try it out, and suggest narrowing your eyes like you would for a smile, before slowly blinking—and then watch to see if the cat copies you. 

You may be able to start a sort of conversation with the cat, simply by how you close your eyes.