Source checked 12 November 2026. PawLine editorial team. Not professionally reviewed.
Educational information, not veterinary or individual behavior advice. A slow blink does not diagnose eye health or authorize touching. Do not hold, corner or provoke a cat for a response. Ask your veterinary team about health or behavior concerns.
Two comparisons in familiar homes
The 2020 Scientific Reports paper studied eye narrowing in two experiments. The first recruited 21 cats from 14 households; 18 cat-human pairs remained in the analysis. The second recruited 24 different cats; 18 remained in its analysis. These are small experiments, not a population survey of every kind of cat.
Eye movements and approach are different outcomes
Cats showed more half-blinks and eye narrowing in response to human slow blinking. In the second experiment, their approach scores were higher after slow blinking than after the neutral-face condition. An approach tendency is an observed behavior, not proof of a particular emotion in every cat.
The comparison has boundaries
The neutral-face condition in experiment 2 avoided direct eye contact. The authors note that gaze direction or attention could have affected approach responses. Owners also varied in their displays in experiment 1. Those details belong beside the positive result rather than hidden below it.
What the paper does not provide
The study does not offer a love score, an eye-health assessment or a rule that a cat must blink back. It did not establish permission to touch. The authors call for further research before firm conclusions about the emotional state associated with slow blinking.
Sources and limits
Humphrey and colleagues: The role of cat eye narrowing movements in cat-human communication