How cats smile and how to smile back

Researchers from the UK have discovered that cats, like humans, can smile, but they do it with their eyes. According to StudyFinds, for cats, narrowing their eyes is their real way of smiling. Thus, psychologists from the universities of Portsmouth and Sussex found that when people narrow their eyes, creating the so-called “slow blink” effect, cats perceive this as an analogue of a smile. This action makes humans much more attractive to cats, and they will often return affection to anyone who shows it.

The study used two tests to examine how cats react to both their owners and strangers, using eye narrowing to communicate. In the first…