…why do we find puppies cute?

  • FlordaMan@lemmy.world
    10·
    6 days ago

    To start off, I don’t think humans are greedy and selfish by nature.

    But… humans have evolved to find babies cute so we protect our offspring. And puppies have similar properties to babies (big eyes, soft, small etc.).

  • shiftymccool@piefed.caEnglish
    1·
    4 days ago

    SOME people are selfish and greedy by nature and SOME are not. It’s almost like nature creates variation and generalizations about humanity as a whole don’t cover the nuance of the individual. Any system that relies on EVEYONE to be a rational, compassionate human will fail beacuse you need to account for the inevitable asshole. There are always assholes

    • Naz@sh.itjust.works
      5·
      6 days ago

      Compare the markers/facial proportions of human infants with some other infant animals

      Seems pretty on the nose

    • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@anarchist.nexusEnglish
      5·
      6 days ago

      Well… didn’t we materially benefit tremendously from the domestication of dogs? So it wouldn’t make much sense for humans to evolve to like adult dogs but be ambivalent or negative towards puppy dogs because puppies become adults. Also, I’m not a dog owner, but I imagine that you can train a puppy much more thoroughly than an adult dog.

      • A404@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
        1·
        6 days ago

        Okay but what about cats and rabbits? We keep them as pets too despite them not providing any survival benefit whatsoever.

        • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@anarchist.nexusEnglish
          2·
          6 days ago

          Cats were useful for pest control, and rabbits made for a convenient source of meat. (Dogs are definitely still used as service animals, e.g. police dogs, guard dogs, etc.)

          Like I’m with you that today, the vast majority of cats and rabbits are kept as pets for which there’s no “survival” incentive…but there probably was a pragmatic reason to put in the time to domesticate them. Probably. And none of this diminishes my view that we are at least good enough for anarchism.

          • zloubida@sh.itjust.works
            3·
            6 days ago

            Dogs are definitely still used as service animals

            And as a convenient source of meat in some regions, and worldwide during emergencies.

    • Rugnjr@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      1·
      5 days ago

      Humans aren’t selfish or greedy by nature at all? Have you met humans? Like, not online? Most of them are cool ! If you’re having problems with some, just go somewhere where there are other ones, they’re all over the place!