• Home
  • About Me
    • My Bio
    • Sponsor Info
    • Giveaways
    • My Other Freelance Writing
    • Video Hello
    • blogging advice
  • Love + Relationships
    • Dating
    • Engagements
    • Letters to my future husband
    • Love Lounge
    • marriage
    • Memo To Men
    • Open Letters
    • Singlehood
    • virginity
    • Weddings
  • Fashion + Style
    • beauty
    • do or don’t
    • fashion
    • hair
    • jewelry
    • men’s fashion
    • women’s fashion
  • Art + Design
    • art
    • design
    • dream home
    • flowers
    • illustration
    • Photographs
    • posters
    • tattoos
    • typography
  • Disability Dialogue
    • body image
    • Dating
    • Dating With Disabilities
    • depression
    • disabilities in the media
    • Disability
  • Life + Leisure
    • babies
    • birthday
    • books
    • dream vacation
    • Entertainment and Media
    • etsy love
    • family
    • food
    • gift guide
    • holidays
    • In The Pursuit of Happiness
    • link love
    • magazines
    • Man Candy
    • movies
    • music
    • peek inside
    • Shopping
    • TV
    • would you rather

Thursday, April 16, 2015

The Science Behind Puppy Photos

Have you read Robert M. Sapolsky’s article about why we melt at puppy pictures? Well, it turns out the real reason may have more to do with science than with emotions.

Those mushy feelings go back to our evolutionary instinct to protect our young. You know how it is when you see a cute baby with its little bald head and its rosy, chubby cheeks; even if the baby isn’t yours, you feel this instinct takes over, and you just want to scoop the little thing into your arms, right? It just comes naturally and you don’t even think about it. Scientists also know that face time with cute babies releases the feel-good chemical dopamine in our brains. It sort of like a cycle: The cuter the baby, the higher dose of dopamine and the more we want to take care of the baby. The same is true in our response to puppies…

It turns out that our brains aren’t great at differentiating between our own cute babies and those of animals….In other words, the neural circuits that update what counts as cute do not pay attention to what species we are looking at: It’s not as if we’ve had to evolve distinctive safeguards against parenting the wrong species. The brain as a whole has no problem distinguishing human from nonhuman, cute or otherwise. Nevertheless, among humans, when it comes to adorableness, on a certain neurobiological level human baby = puppy = calf = fawn = piglet.

How fascinating! It’s cool to think of our brain like that, isn’t it? Do you find some puppies cuter than others? Do you have a puppy right now? You all know how much I love Harry and Stella, but I still could totally stare at puppy photos ALL DAY LOOONG!! xoxo

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Email

2 Comments Filed Under: animals, babies, family, Happiness, How To Live A Happy Life, Photographs, Uncategorized


Warning: Use of undefined constant rand - assumed 'rand' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/customer/www/melissablakeblog.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/melissa-blake/functions.php on line 179

Related Posts

  • Have A Cool Weekend.Have A Cool Weekend.
  • Fall Favorite #3: Very Berry Lips and Tips
  • Man Candy Monday.
  • Man Candy Monday.

Comments

  1. Elle Sees says

    Friday, April 17, 2015 at 11:39 am

    i have probably thousands of pics of my pup and i still melt over them. and he has just 1 pose!

    Reply
  2. Melissa Blake says

    Thursday, April 23, 2015 at 7:26 pm

    Awww, yes, Elle! I'm the same way with my two cats! They totally have my heart wrapped around their little paws…

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

So About What I Said is a daily blog that covers relationships, disabilities, lifestyle and pop culture. I love to laugh and have been known to overshare. I also have an unabashed obsession with pop music, polo shirts, and PEZ dispensers. Read more...

Let's Be Friends
Pinterest
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Bloglovin
RSS

Contact Me
Subscribe by Email

About Us

dotted lineAbout Us
archive

Archives

So About What I Said © 2022 · Design by Maiedae · Development by High Note Designs

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.