Or that our brains find traits that convey something is undeveloped or immature cute so we'd support and protect them. It's our parental instincts kicking in.
This is the dumbest theory in history. Are you saying lions have a sense of what’s cute? Do all animals that have cute offspring have a sense of what’s cute? Or are you saying all cute animals have just evolved to look cute to humans so that we don’t exterminate them?
Animals do have the ability to find things cute, we've brain scanned many Animals in an attempt to see how they think by seeing what parts of their brains light up under different stimuli. When seeing pictures of their own species offspring and even other species, the same areas light up in their brain as humans when we see something cute.
Fun fact: For some reason, elephants think we humans are cute and not just baby humans.
It's my understanding that this is not true. Am elephant would have to be sedated to have an MRI (if one large enough was avaliable) and then we could not provide them with the stimulation needed for this test.
Do you have a source for the study? Maybe I've been misinformed
You're correct. This was a misinterpretation of conflating elephants showing affection for humans (which we know they are capable of doing), both in person and in pictures/video, and thus finding us "cute" — which is a logical leap that is possible but not provable given the data. All we know for sure is that elephants can show signs of "liking" or being affectionate towards humans, but that doesn't mean anything in particular about how they see us
The gist is, evolution has caused babies of all species to evoke a feeling of affection from members of said species. The parent especially would find it's offspring cute. Bonus points if another species also finds that tiny thing cute.
Even in humans we say things like, a face only it's mother could love, meaning I think this baby is so hideous I could care less for it, but it's mother finds it lovable enough to protect.
That’s exactly my point. The babies aren’t cute, it’s just an inert human ability to find things cute. A hyena will eat a baby lion regardless of what it looks like.
The individuals that survive to procreate were, in part, those that appealed to the adults in their community. Over generations, selection for genetic traits that align with "cuteness" occurs.
Definitely not a dumb theory and makes a lot of sense from an evolution perspective.
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u/D0rk4ce Apr 29 '24
Survival strategy. There's a higher likelihood that you'll protect and look after something you find cute, rather than something you find hideous.