Why do we think certain things/animals are ‘cute’? Is this evolutionarily beneficial or is it socially-learned?

[u/[deleted]]

Why do I look at cats and dogs and little baby creatures and get overwhelmed with this weird emotion where all I can do is think about how adorable they are? To me it seems useless in a survival context.

Edit: thanks for the responses everyone; I don’t have time to respond but it’s been very insightful.

[u/suvlub]

Cuteness is linked to nurturing instincts. Part of why we find baby animals (particularly mammals) cute is their similarity to human babies. Desire to nurture human babies has obvious evolutionary advantages. This is also a likely reason why women tend to be more into cute animals than men, because they play a bigger role in nurturing children (especially in the past). However, desire to nurture babies of other species can be an evolutionary advantage in and of itself - it can lead to domestication of the animals.

Source

[u/I_DONT_NEED_HELP → u/suvlub]

But to me a good number of grown dogs are way cuter than human babies. Is evolution misguided here?

[u/R34CTz → u/suvlub]

Oddly enough, my gfs roommate has a kitten, one of the few breeds I'm not allergic to. Bengal. It's absolutely adorable, and super friendly and playful. I HAVE to give it attention when I'm there, can't resist it. My gf finds it cute, but really doesn't care about it much. I love the thing lol.

[u/atomfullerene]

It's an application of the same instinct that causes people to think human babies are cute. There's something called the "baby schema", first put forward by Konrad Lorentz, which says that people find cute faces with larger eyes, bigger forheads, and retreating chins. image link. It's been shown that these traits activate particular regions of the brain and influences cuteness perception of both humans and animals. And it gets used for cartoon characters too.

As for why, well those sorts of questions are always hard to answer with complete certainty, but a very plausible answer is this.

Human babies need a lot of care. And, unlike most other animals, a significant amount of that care is likely to come from other individuals in the group. I mean just for starters humans are near unique in that they almost obligately need a midwife around for birth (there are exceptions both ways but they are exceptions), and the need for help with your baby continues on from there. As a result, it's very important for humans to have an instinct that pushes them to care for infants. Hence a strong "pro infant" cuteness instinct. The thing to remember about these kinds of instincts is that they often aren't very precise. Consider foods for comparison. We don't have an instinct to like specific foods. Instead we have an instinct to like sugars and fats and that can lead us to eat things our ancestors would never have known about. The specifics are learned. Likewise, the "baby schema" isn't unique to human babies, so the instinct makes people prone to thinking a whole range of things are cute. But just as with food, the details are modified by personal taste and culture.

[u/[deleted]]

Research on facial attractiveness has pointed out that the presence of childlike facial features (in women) increases (their) attractiveness. These are: 

• Large head 

• Large curved forehead 

• Facial elements (eyes, nose, mouth) located relatively low 

• Large, round eyes 

• Small, short nose 

• Round cheeks 

• Small chin 

https://www.uni-regensburg.de/Fakultaeten/phil_Fak_II/Psychologie/Psy_II/beautycheck/english/kindchenschema/kindchenschema.htm

[u/PandaBean82]

It is called „survival of the cutest“ - https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100120093525.htm

The most extreme form is the Panda. The beneficial part is for the earthling that we think is cute, because we are more likely to support it.

[u/NadaBrothers]

Its useless to you in a survival concept. But its quite useful to the puppies and kittens. Basically, all mammal offspring have evolved to have neotenous (child-like) features - big eyes, high-pitched voices etc. And all mammal "adults" have evolved to react to neotenous features with adoration, empathy and protectiveness.

This reactivity goes across species, apparently- since humans clearly like animal babies and animal babies are godamn cute. But this is a "by-product " of the reactivity to neotenous features that all mammals have.

TL: dr - The reaction to neotenous features is a part of the parent drive to help us rear our young but it causes us to feel "cutesy " feelings for other animal babies as well.

[u/[deleted]]

Seems like you think ”evolutionary beneficial” and ”socially-learned” are the only two options, but they're not. Many human traits are more like side effects of something else, and that's likely the case here. We think certain animals are cute as a side effect of thinking human babies are cute, and thinking human babies are cute is the actual link to evolution (it clearly increases their chance of survival.)

[u/ghotiaroma]

I feel there is a social element. Consider rabbits in Australia where they are generally considered an ugly pest. Or rats in most places yet they can be excellent pets.

Raccoons, squirrels etc. will be cute or not based on the situation. Vermin if they break into your house, adorable if you feed them in the park.

[u/DIYspecialops]

There’s a great National Geographic article about domestication of foxes that goes into the evolutionary benefits of cuteness, especially in relation to how humans interact with them. Floppy ears, curly tails, spotted fir. All traits that became more pronounced with domestication so humans wouldn’t feel threatened by them.