Dogs may use blinking as a subtle social signal
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Blinking keeps eyes moist, sweeps away bits of dirt and dust, and helps the brain rest when processing visual information. But in dogs, it may also serve another function as a subtle social signal. That was one of the conclusions of new research published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, which found that dogs blink more often when they see their owners blinking.
Previous studies showed that dogs blink more when watching videos of other dogs blinking and when interacting with their owners rather than a familiar trainer. But these involved live interactions or complex setups, making it difficult to separate blinking from spoken words, body movements or physical barriers.
Putting blinking to the test
In this study, researchers at the University of Parma in Italy set out to look at blinking on its own. They tested 35 dogs to see how they would react to video footage of humans. Each animal watched two 40-second clips of three people. In the first video, their owner, an unfamiliar man and an unfamiliar woman each blinked once every three seconds. In the second video, the three humans looked straight ahead without blinking.
To track the responses accurately, the researchers recorded every session and used a specialized system for analyzing dog facial movements, counting each eyelid movement frame by frame.
The results revealed clear differences in how the animals responded. As the team noted in their paper, “The main finding of the present study was that dogs showed a higher BR [blink rate] when exposed to human blinking videos.”
Familiarity appears to be important because the animals blinked more frequently when looking at their owners than at strangers. Further analysis showed that dogs had the highest blink rates when looking at female owners compared with unfamiliar humans.
When watching the control videos, in which humans did not blink at all, the dogs’ blinking rates dropped significantly across the board.
So what does all this mean?
Reading between the blinks
The scientists suggest that a dog’s blinking rate is shaped by both the blinking behavior itself and the social relevance of the person involved, namely whether they are their owner or a stranger.
But this did not mean they were copying their owner’s blinks. The researchers found no significant evidence that a dog was more likely to blink within 1.5 seconds of a human blink, whether the person was its owner or an unfamiliar person. Instead, they suggest that the dogs’ increased blinking could reflect heightened attention, automatic mimicry or broader social processes.
“Our findings suggest that eye blinking may play a role in dogs’ behavioral repertoire in social contexts,” added the scientists.
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Publication details
Chiara Canori et al, Blinking together: the modulation of eye blinking in dog–human social contexts, Royal Society Open Science (2026). DOI: 10.1098/rsos.260512
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Dogs may use blinking as a subtle social signal (2026, August 26)
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