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Post by whollygoats on Jun 12, 2018 19:11:01 GMT
how cute kittens and puppies are?
Why is it when I see foofy little kittens, or waggy little puppy tailbutts, I go all ooogy inside and become irrational and incoherent?
What is that all about, any way?
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Post by JoeP on Jun 12, 2018 20:53:22 GMT
It's biology. And evolution. Many species use the same tricks - large eyes relative to head size, general helplessness - to trigger parental instincts in their own parents.
The species we've been mostly successful in domesticating are probably the ones where our parental triggers align with their young's characteristics, and at the same time where they can continue to behave as kits/pups to humans as the parental surrogates.
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Post by Kye on Jun 12, 2018 21:02:39 GMT
Maybe, but baby lions are pretty cute... And baby snakes.
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Post by JoeP on Jun 12, 2018 21:20:12 GMT
Baby lions, yes. Domestication isn't necessary for the triggers to work ... in fact it's more of a coincidence.
Baby snakes, hmm. Not everyone would agree that baby snakes are that much different from small adult snakes.
But to an extent we are conditioned to find small, helpless-looking things cute. The Mini Cooper. Tiny paperclips. Pluto.
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Post by Kye on Jun 12, 2018 22:06:16 GMT
Awww... Pluto...! So cute
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Post by tangent on Jun 12, 2018 22:06:22 GMT
I'm not sure Pluto is cute.
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Post by Kye on Jun 12, 2018 22:12:11 GMT
Why I wonder do we have such an affinity to fuzzy? Human babies aren't fuzzy (hopefully).
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Post by Moose on Jun 12, 2018 22:33:27 GMT
The funny thing is, I really don't like human babies and don't find them at all appealing. But fuzzy babies? Oh yeah.
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Post by Mari on Jun 13, 2018 6:30:45 GMT
Human babies are generally ugly, I think. I still can't help but go all d'awwwwww! when I see one though.
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Post by tangent on Jun 13, 2018 11:38:21 GMT
I really like them when they're asleep
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Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 19, 2018 1:14:56 GMT
Baby kittens and puppies are also kinda ugly when they are very first popped out of the mother. But they become fuzzy, wuzzy cute as cute can be pretty quickly. Takes a lot longer for a human baby to get over that stage I think.
I watched a doco about cats a few years back, and apparently they have pitched their meow to be the same as a human baby to make us extra attentive to them.
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