Why do humans find predators cute?
Why do humans find predators cute?
Cats, dogs, bears, owls, weasels. Most of them could seriously injure/kill an average human with minor difficulty and yet we find them adorable?
Does not compute.
We're predators ourselves, so if we couldn't find predatory aspects (large, forward-facing eyes, for example) to be cute our babies would get left on hillsides.
It's not something I'd generally consider to be one of my kinks, but I remember one time noticing a girl I know has somewhat more prominent than average canine teeth. Not ridiculously exaggerated vampire fangs or anything, definitely within the range of normal variation of the human species, but towards the upper end of that range, just a tiny bit longer and pointier than most.
And that did something for me. Like the primal reptilian part of my brain was saying "yesss, now there's a female you can go and hunt mammoths with"
It surely didn't hurt that she is otherwise very conventionally attractive, but in that moment it wasn't the great tits, ass, pretty face, blue eyes, long blonde hair, etc. that caught my eye, it was those carnivore teeth.
She's also been an on-again/off-again vegetarian as long as I've known her, and has expressed some interest in hunting, so I think her own lizard-brain also seems to have some strong thoughts on the matter.
I discovered this about myself fairly recently, but I'm never really attracted to a woman unless I'm also at least a little bit scared of her.
somewhat more prominent than average canine teeth
this is definitely a "thing"
"Where's the baby!?"
"Gone. Reduced to atoms."
Still kinda wild to me that our preservation instincts can be overridden by something that doesn't resemble a human in any way outside of a few features.
It's because they evolved to hack our brains, and our brains evolved to be hacked by their smells / sounds / features. 'Natural selection for reproductive fitness' is a harsh mistress.
To be fair, our ancestors, evolutionary speaking, didnt resemble us that much if you go back far enough. A system that just considers a few key features a "child to be protected" is probably more adaptable than if every change in appearance had to be accompanied with a corresponding mutation to whatever gives us our mental picture of what our young should look like, for them to still get taken care of.
we are configured to find child-like things cute, and they theyre appearance throws a lot of that at us.
owls have giant, child-like eyeballs. bears have roly-poly bodies..
If not friend, why friend shaped?
Ask Little Red Riding Hood.
"Why such big teeth?" "To better eat you."
I suspect that there's a relationship between cute and being eaten by the parents of cute.
game recognizes game
Jus wook at dem! ☺️
This is the exact response I'd expect from you lmfao
It depends on the predator. Very few people call snakes or spiders cute, them being the two animals with phobias topping every list of phobias (going so far as to inspire notions that fear of them are biologically imprinted in our psyche). Maybe it's the venom.
I feel like the whole danger noodle and whole puppy face love for pythons in the last tenish years has really changed a lot of opinions. Snek adorbs, as they say.
And spiders have also been getting better light with at least a lot of people finding jumping spiders adorable.
I sort of like snakes, but am hesitant to handle them because 1) they're wild creatures and therefore unpredictable and 2) I heard that they will poo on you if they're alarmed. I don't need that. It's more practical than visceral.
Spiders? Hell no. It's not even an option.
Most people I know fall on either one side or the other. It's not a bad ice-breaker or conversation starter.
Those that don't think spiders are cute hasn't seen a jumping spider wearing a water droplet like a jaunty hat.
I think it is more than a notion that humans have instinctual fears of many things, like snakes and spiders as you say but also blood and disfigurement by disease. Similarly many animals have conditioned fears of humans, we can be very dangerous and unnaturally violent, the killer ape.
The venom is secondary. The primary reason is that our sleeping state provides the conditions of a good sanctuary for them, so they often get close in order to rest or nest and everyone gets spooked once we wake up.
To snakes, we're warm and provide shelter.
To spiders, our open mouths, ears or even nose are hidey-holes that provide near perfect conditions for them to rest in or ambush prey.
Which is why waking up and finding them around is very traumatizing and often startles them into retaliating for self-defense.
We naturally find baby-like features cute, such as:
- chubbiness
- big eyes
- small size (this doesn't always apply ofc)
- cute noises (such as meowing in cats or babbling in babies)
- last but not least, fluffiness. Modern human babies are hairless, yes, but personally I think this is some kind of 'fossil trait' (yes I just made that term up) because we evolved from animals that used to be more fluffy. Besides, fluffiness often makes an animal more round, thus adding to the chubbiness factor.
Now, let's take a look at this pomerian:
This is a predator, yes, but way too small (and docile since this pom is a domesticated anomal) to pose a threat to a human, and who could be scared of that adorable little guy?
This has everything a cute animal needs: it's small, has round black eyes, and is very fluffy, which makes it look round and be a nice cuddle buddy. So your brain goes "ooh, little baby! I must protect and cherish it!", and boom, pet.
That being said, the human brain is a complex and really weird thing, lots of things we do don't make any sense.
Excellent question! I was pondering exactly this conundrum just the other day while watching a snow leopard on BBC Earth. That thing would rip your face off but wow, what a gorgeous beast! I almost ache to pet it.
Actually my pondering went even further. Not only are cats and owls and bears cute, they are much cuter than than our cousins the primates. And it get worse! I for one find that monkeys are cuter than apes, and that our closest cousins the chimpanzees are really pretty fugly indeed. Even the babies. Maybe especially the babies.
What a weird world.
It’s a bit like how people closely related to you are not attractive.
Except in Alabama
I think it's more like an uncanny valley phenomenon. Or it could be that humans are largely neotenous and other primates haven't developed that trait, so they remind us of old, or diseased members of our own species at a unconscious level.
Or it could be both. Strange hairy men that live in the woods? Avoidance response activated.
Ha. Except, jokes aside, I'm not sure it's true. Obviously this is getting into dangerous territory but, as I understand it, people do tend to go for their own ethnic group disproportionately.
Then again, sexual attraction does seem to be qualitatively different. After all, that snow leopard would go straight to the friend zone if you know what I mean.
Predators have forward facing eyes; prey animals usually have eyes that are wider apart. We have forward facing eyes, so predators look more 'human.'
This is an evolved trait. Cute babies are less likely to be eaten. Over time, babies become more cute because they were selected for.
I think part of it is that predators instinctively attract our attention—they fascinate us so we don’t get used to them and turn our backs on them.
I think this is a big part of it. Predators are stimulating and demand our attention. For most people spiders and snakes do so in a way that is upsetting, but because mammalian predators are less alien to us (and many resemble the cats and dogs we've domesticated) they're attractive rather than repellent. But while I might find a lion adorable in video, I'm sure if one walked into my garden I'd be extremely fucking attentive.
Also, mammalian and avian predators are perceptive enough that they could tell we were acting like prey if we reacted to them the way we do to snakes and spiders. Alert attention without fear or aggression is probably the safest way to interact with such predators without provoking them—natural selection doesn’t care why we behave that way, as long as we do it.
They are the end results of millions of years of evolution prioritizing speed, strength, and stealth.
They are simply elegant and have to be strongly assertive to survive.
They have a spark of danger while we're not living in competition with them, or for most of us, we're not in any danger from them.
They share a number of qualities of things most humans would be attracted to aesthetically.
They're the pro athletes of the animal world.
If you picked an animal to come back as if you were reincarnated, would you want to be a rabbit or a cow when you could be an eagle or a shark?
Most aren't killing for fun (looking at you, house cats!), they're just doing what is required of them to survive. It's a brutal world for all wild animals, from the single celled to a whale. A predator is no worse than anything else trying to make it to the next tomorrow.
It's funny you say this because I've heard people who believe in karma and reincarnation talk about coming back as a tiger like it's bad thing.
Interesting. I tried looking it up quick but didn't see anything that would be bad. Buddhism and Hinduism seem to regard tigers as symbols of strength and valor and as protectors. There are an almost infinite number of beliefs though, so I won't doubt others believe the opposite just as well.
The only guess I could come up with is maybe if you were a tiger people would ask be afraid of you and possibly want to hurt you for being so potentially dangerous.
I used to be really squeamish about snakes, but we adopted a surrendered Columbian red-tailed boa and love her so much. She's incredibly sweet and very smart and curious. (Okay kinda dumb in many other ways lol)
The only time she's bitten us was if she got confused and missed her strike when we were trying to feed her (frozen) rats.
I think predators tend to require more smarts, and fat builds better brains, and prey tend to be rich in fat.
So naturally, I think we find things that problem solve and play and exhibit curiosity to be cute.
I dunno, lotsa "prey animals" are cute too but maybe it's in other ways? Haha
bears... are cute? 🤨
Also, I'm pretty sure my cat cannot eat me.
I always remind my cat "btw, I'm bigger than you, you can't eat me you know" just in case she gets hungry.
Scary! But a baby bear is cute. Because of mammal instincts to take care of baby
From behind a lens? Adorable and majestic, frankly!
That's cute and all, but it's a far different thing to see one up close and personal, and trailing a couple of cubs. Like I did last week.
My 170lbs dog could eat me if he decided to. He would get less cuddles then so he has high incentive not to
Oh my God I once saw a black bear get stressed out after wandering into the neighborhood. Truly had no idea what to do about all the people other than climb and try to hide in a tree that it then got stuck in.
Eventually it was tranqued and they caught it fireman style with a tarp held underneath it as it slipped out of the tree.
I'd probably have a less cute story if it was a Polar, Grizzly or Kodiak bear though.
Lions and Tigers are cats.
Wait until you hear the double standard about how humans saw baby seals. Humans are awfully picky about what they find cute and what they don't find cute. Like, I find Hyenas cute, but people largely don't.
Agreed. I find rodents cute. Rats absolutely included.
Then there's the dog question. My position:
- huskies, collies, spitzes - cute
- labradors, dachshunds - moderately cute
- poodles, pugs, bloodhounds - not cute (at all)
At least for cats and dogs, part of the explanation is simply that we've kept and bred them as pets for a long time. Them being predators made them useful as a pet, as you could take dogs out for hunting and cats became useful when we started doing agriculture, where they could independently hunt the rodents on the fields and in our storage rooms.
Humans are relatively defenseless but specialize in child rearing.
This gives us an advantage in taking pets. If you’re gonna form a bond with an animal it’s better if that animal is a predator because they can fight more effectively.
It makes more sense to give scritchy-witchies to a grizzly-wizzly than to a bunny-wun.
So I've got some cats. They're small, but they can fuck up your day.
That being said, I rely on them solely as an early warning system. If I'm home alone and hear a strange sound that may be cause for alarm, I look for cats. If they're sleeping peacefully there's no external threat. If they can't be found, someone is nearby. It may just be the mail delivery, but they know when a human is in the vicinity.
kindred spirits
Maybe it has something to do with our coevolution with canines? Just speculation on my part.
I like spiders. wait fuck they are predators too. the only animal which I can think of that aren't, are fish, and heck yeah, one of my favorite animals IN THEORY but they just suck, I mean they are in the water, how will you cuddle or form a bond, you will drown upon entering the fish's dome, it will suffocate upon entering your world. it is an impossible relationship, it cannot be. I want floating fish in air, can someone engineer this
The things we find cute are not necessarily the things which we associate with predators. We find prey animals cute too.
The peacock jumping spider is cute af.
Why do humans find humans attractive?
That's kind of a dumb question. Reproduction.
I'm not gonna fuck an animal just because I find it cute.
Evolutionarily I'm gonna wanna fuck another person I find cute because dna says procreate or the species dies.
It's only a dumb question is you don't think a little further. Go on, you can do it.
You just listed a bunch of mammals, not a representative sample of predators. You think lobsters and spiders are cuter than cuter than deer and koalas?
edit: oops, 4 mammals and a bird
Owls are not mammals. Also many people think certain spiders are cute and same with many lizards and amphibians.
Frogs are cute, jumping spiders are cute, geckos are cute. They're all predators but they're still cute
Good point.
Which raises another paradox: attractive does not seem to be a proxy for appetizing.
At least for most people. Personally I find lobsters creepy as hell and would never even touch one much less eat it.
Spiders of the sea. Crabs too. I wouldn't want to touch one that wasn't cooked.
Although I find the comparison discomforting to think about, the sea spiders both go well with butter and are generally regarded as delicious.
That introduces the question: if there were a land spider large enough to nullify the risk/reward/deliciousness equation, would I give it a try? My gut answer is no, but I think the realistic answer is, "I'll wait and see what my fellow apes do with it first. If they have any good recipes, probably yes."
Jumping spiders are kinda cute.
"Who's a cute little pedophile?"
I wouldn't consider dogs predators like cats are. Cats can easily survive in the wild. Dogs cannot as easily. They mostly need people to survive. Some breeds probably could but a lot would be absolutely fucked. I'd take dogs off that list lol.
Wild dogs exist on all continents except Antarctica. Dogs are actually very good at surviving on their ownthey just require a "pack"
I'll admit i did no research aside from a 2 second google search and mostly pulled that out of my ass :-P