Let’s start with the face. Humans are wired to respond to a particular set of features, namely big eyes, rounded heads, high foreheads and chubby cheeks. Scientists call this the baby schema, an idea that traces back to the ethologist Konrad Lorenz, and it explains why a kitten, a duckling and a human infant can all set off the same warm rush.
Our survival once depended on looking after tiny, helpless creatures, so the brain learned to reward us for noticing them. Plenty of animals just happen to have the same design, which means a hamster stuffing its cheeks with snacks can press the exact same buttons as a newborn. Nobody needs to explain it to us. Our brains get the memo before we do.
#4 My Friend Works In A Mall And She Found This Little Baddie Today Under A Bench
The payoff goes beyond a warm feeling, too. A team at Hiroshima University in Japan ran experiments with 132 students and found that people who looked at photos of puppies and kittens did better afterward at a delicate game similar to Operation than people who had looked at grown dogs and cats.
#7 After A Week, My Little Ones Are Finally Getting Along, And Today I Found Them Like This
They also slowed down and worked more carefully. The researchers suggested that cuteness may narrow our attention and sharpen our focus on details. It was a small lab study with university students, so nobody should expect a promotion from a puppy photo, but it does give you a decent excuse the next time someone catches you scrolling through baby otter pictures during a work break.
#10 There's A Fox Family Living Under Our Front Porch And Sometimes The Babies Take A Nap On Our Mat
Mood is part of the story as well. Jessica Gall Myrick, a media researcher at Indiana University, surveyed almost 7,000 people about their cat video habits and discovered that watching them left viewers with more energy, more positive emotions and fewer negative ones such as anxiety, annoyance and sadness.
#15 She Gives Me This Look Every Time It Rains Like I Personally Control The Weather
Even the folks who admitted to watching while procrastinating said the enjoyment outweighed the guilt. The scale of it is hard to ignore, since YouTube was home to more than 2 million cat videos as of 2014, with nearly 26 billion views between them. Calling it a guilty pleasure starts to look a little unfair.
#16 I’ve Just Taken The Most Cartoonish Photo Of My Cat. Thought You Would Appreciate
Then there is the strange urge to squeeze something so adorable that it feels impossible to handle. Researchers call it cute aggression, and a Yale team including Oriana Aragón helped put a name to it. About half of adults feel it at least now and then. Nobody who feels it wants to hurt the puppy, of course. One theory is that it works like a pressure valve, helping us come down from an overload of happy feelings a bit faster. So if a pile of sleeping ducklings makes you want to growl at your screen, you are in very good company.
