If you’re anything like me, even just one or two wholesome posts is enough to make you feel a little better about everything. A whole collection of them is even more welcome.
And it doesn’t really matter what they’re about either. Whether it’s a photo of a cute dog just living its best life or a heartwarming news story, it all counts. We could all use a little more positivity in our lives.
Of course, cute things have a particular power all of their own. A chubby-cheeked baby or a sleepy, purring cat can cure just about any kind of sadness. One “awww” and that’s all you need.
And there’s actually a good reason for that. According to Verywell Mind, humans are naturally drawn to things we find adorable, whether that’s animals, people, objects, or even certain sounds.
“The visual appeal of cuteness often triggers positive emotions, making us feel relaxed and happy,” says neuropsychologist Dr. Sanam Hafeez. “Psychologically, these cute features often lead to feelings of affection and a desire to engage with them in a playful way.”
Researchers argue that our love of cute things has an evolutionary explanation. Dr. Michael Valdez, medical director at Detox California, points out that features we tend to find cute, like larger eyes and rounder faces, are signals that trigger our caregiving instincts, which ultimately help ensure the survival of the species.
Austrian ethologist Konrad Lorenz has a similar take, suggesting that most things we find cute share qualities with human babies, and that our enjoyment of them is really just our natural nurturing drive doing its thing.
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What’s happening in our brains during all of this is pretty fascinating. Dr. Hafeez explains that seeing something cute activates the reward and emotion centers of the brain, specifically the ventral striatum and the nucleus accumbens.
This triggers a release of dopamine, which is the neurotransmitter behind those warm, fuzzy feelings we get when we stumble across a particularly good photo of a puppy.
Well, some people might argue that surrounding ourselves with positivity is naive. That a healthy dose of cynicism is just the sensible way to get through life.
But research actually disagrees. Professor Denise Baden found that positive news stories have a surprisingly powerful impact on us.
She ran a study exposing students to both positive and negative versions of news stories, and the results were pretty clear. Students who read positive stories were more motivated to take action in their own lives, like adopting better environmental habits.
The more anxious the negative stories made people feel, the less motivated they were to do anything at all. What we consume matters more than we think, and it turns out positivity doesn’t just make us feel good, it makes us better people too.
