Puppies are undeniably some of the cutest creatures on the planet. Whether you’re looking at a pup of your own breed or a breed you’ve never seen before, it’s hard not to be filled with a sense of warmth and admiration when you look into a puppy’s eyes. But why exactly are these four-legged bundles of joy so appealing to us? In this blog post, we will take a look at why and how puppies have become a source of joy for people all around the world. Through explorations of their form and behavior, we can gain a better understanding of why we are so drawn to them. We will also discuss how this connection between humans and puppies has evolved over time and how our relationship with them affects their development. By exploring the physical, behavioral, and evolutionary aspects that make puppies so attractive to us, we can better understand why they have become such an integral part of our lives.
Puppies 101: What puppies can teach us about psychology.
Everyone responds differently to stress. Our family adopted a puppy.
It wasnt a casual decision. We had been talking about it for 18 months. Since the summer of last year, I’ve been poking around on PetFinder and asking around with my friends and family.
But this week, it happened. Meet Loki.
Apparently, Im not alone. Shelters have been flooded with volunteers to foster animals in the past few weeks.
Four adults are taking refuge at home, which is a good time for our family because young puppies need a lot of care to be trained and socialized. Shelters need as much assistance as they can get because animals keep coming in, and it is particularly difficult at the moment because of strict hygiene regulations to arrange for pets and new families to meet.
Babyness
This article is the first in a series on what psychology can be learned from puppies.
The concept of “babyness” in developmental psychology proposes that certain visual characteristics cause people to feel strongly altruistic. Kittens, anime characters, and infants typically evoke an “Aww. As a developmental psychologist, I am aware that the entire class will cry the moment I show a baby—any kind of baby—on a screen.
The qualities that do that are well established:
In its animation, Walt Disney Studios has mastered the use of babyness. Characters who are sympathetic are frequently smaller and have a lot of “babyish” characteristics. ” More aggressive villains do not. They have longer noses, sharper chins, smaller heads and eyes, longer noses, and, of course, bigger teeth. The “harmers” (sidekicks of the bad guys frequently added for humor) are interesting in that they combine both babylike and villainous traits.
Following Darwin and others, John Bowlby proposed that “babyness” was a component of the human attachment system. According to attachment theory, the attachment system keeps babies close to their caregivers so they can protect them from harm and use their attachment figures, usually their parents, as a safe base for exploration. Attachment is from infant to caregiver. But the caregiver system, which is from the (typically) parent to the helpless infant or child, is also a part of the attachment system.
The babylike quality, whining or crying, and other evoking stimuli that the small being in need of care emits are thought to activate the caregiver system in humans. Most people react to these traits right away by releasing oxytocin, also known as the “cuddle” hormone, feeling warm and wanting to comfort and cuddle whoever or whatever is causing the stimuli. Even very young children respond that way. Borgi and colleagues (2014) found that children as young as 3 to 6 years old looked preferentially at more babyish faces and wanted to nurture and care for them when “cuteness” was experimentally manipulated. Their appearance and perceived cuteness increased as their facial features (round face, high forehead, big eyes, small nose, and mouth) became more infantile.
Baby animals are even cuter than baby humans.
Both adults and young children preferred looking at animals to human faces. The authors write:
In our study, adults and children showed a more positive evaluation of animal stimuli than of human stimuli, and among animals, they gave the highest score to the dog and the cat (an effect that vanished when viewing young faces: puppies and kittens received a similar score). Humans positive response toward animals (e. g. , preference for animal stimuli over inanimate and human stimuli, and positive animal behaviors), as well as the highest rate of the dog, had previously been demonstrated in a number of studies (DeLoache et al. , 2011; Lobue et al. , 2012; Borgi and Cirulli, 2013). “.
As I said, puppies (and kittens) are cute. Interestingly, peoples responses were independent of pet ownership.
Our response is remarkably strong despite our preference for dogs and cats. I wrote a piece on babyness about chickens a few years ago. There are many ways to describe adult chickens, but “cute” is rarely one of them. Chicks, on the other hand, are adorable. The other day, I was at a farm shop, and there was a small crowd of adults and children whooping around each tub of spring chicks.
Younger is not more babyish.
Interestingly, younger is not necessarily more babyish. Two images of Loki are shown above: one at six weeks and one at ten. Although both have many “babyish” qualities, they are different. Loki appears to have a longer nose in this picture than he does in the younger one where he is thinner. In my (owner-biased) opinion, he is cuter as a 10-week-old.
That makes sense because, at six weeks old, he was a very ill little puppy. He is now boundingly healthy. Humans have a propensity to care for others, but they are less drawn to infants who are thinner—and probably less healthy—than those with round, chubby cheeks.
Many dogs bred to be lap dogs retain their “puppiness” into adulthood. Almost all have very short noses, small mouths, bulbous foreheads, and large heads. They retain their cuteness for a lifetime.
And that makes them all the easier to love.
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Puppies Evoke a Caregiving Response
Puppies are reliant on our care and protrude a “babylike” quality that melts our hearts just like babies tend to. The babylike features of a puppy evoke a caregiving response that makes us want to act as protectors. Features in puppies that help conjure this response include:
A puppy’s head typically looks larger than it should when compared to the body, which seems to be endearing to humans. Many philosophers, including Darwin and John Bowlby, thought that the feelings that we experience when looking at puppies or babies are part of our attachment system.
Puppies Activate Our Reward System
Looking at puppies tends to tap into our brains on a neural level and activate our reward system. Simply laying eyes on a cute puppy makes us want to reward ourselves with fuzzy feelings. Cute puppies also tend to invoke empathy and feelings of goodwill. Just like with babies, we want nothing more than to make sure the puppies we spend time with are safe and comfortable.
When you feel completely safe around a cute puppy, it is simple to ooh and aah over them because they cannot do anything to harm you. The puppy’s cuteness is increased by their innocent actions in addition to their attractive appearance. Even a puppy that is just sitting there is adorable. However, your heart melts even more when the puppy begins to roll over on its back or cuddle up in your lap.
FAQ
Why do puppies like humans so much?
When people or dogs interact with or come into contact with someone they like, the hormone oxytocin is released. This “love hormone” strengthens and deepens our relationship; it is also the hormone that new mothers’ bodies are flooded with to increase their attachment to their unborn children. ”.
Do puppies naturally love humans?
In contrast to wolves and other wild animals, dogs are drawn to people by nature. Brian Hare’s experiments revealed that domestication makes animals notice what we’re doing and what we’re trying to communicate.
Are puppies cuter than human babies?
On the objective cuteness scale we mentioned earlier, puppies and kittens generally scored higher than people. (Congratulations to all dog lovers: it was generally determined that puppies were just a little bit cuter than kittens, with adult dogs still being just a little bit cuter than babies.)
Do our dogs think we’re cute?
In a nutshell, dogs do not find people to be cute. Dogs recognize us more by our scents than by our physical characteristics. They lack the mental capacity to judge whether we are cute or not. However, they are capable of recognizing and perceiving us.