Dirty John Bonny
Cute
Neotony is the retention, or even the revival, of juvenile morphological and psychological traits of youngsters in adults. Among vertebrates, and especially mammals, these traits include a proportionally large head, and proportionally large eyes and smaller limbs. The psychological part involves behaviors of playfullness and submission.
Somehow we humans respond to these cues in what might be seen, if looked at objectively, as exaggerated and excessive. Hence Pokemon, Hello Kitty, various Hallmark products, and DJB's own AnimalPals.
An essay by evolutionary biologist and science historian Stephen Jay Gould first published in Natural History magazine (1980?) used the evolution of the drawing of Mickey Mouse to illustrate the appeal of neotony.
He speculates that the Disney artists gradually came to recognize the appeal of childlike characteristics, and over time, Mickey grew a proportionally bigger head and eyes and smaller limbs.
He also observed that at the same time, other more "bad guy" or intentionally less sympathetic characters, tended toward more adult proportions.
Using this illustrative jumping-off point, he goes on to suggest that humans might be looked at as neotonous chimpanzees, and hints at what it may mean to our evolution.
Other experts have expanded the rules of cuteness, as seen here, at Cuteoverload.com.
There is considerable evidence that cats and dogs have been bred and selected for for neotonous characteristics. My own old-man cat occasionally goes tearing around the house in pursuit of imagined prey, to the amusement of both of us.
It seems to me that when considering theories about the evolution of psychological characteristics versus morphological characteristics, the former is vulnerable to just-so stories while the latter has the relatively harder genetic, evo-devo, and historical fossil evidence.
But, to indulge in just-so analysis, it makes sense, given how complex our brains and social interactions are, that evolutionary psychological conditioning can spill over, so to speak.
So, our receptiveness to cuteness allowed our development of large brains and long, long, childhood and the required support and nurturing (note, for example, that we are the longest-lived primates). So long as the spillover is not overly maladaptive it would not have been selected out.
So we like cute, wherever we find it.
Links:
Stephen Jay Gould, A Biological Homage to Mickey Mouse.
Wikipedia: neotony.
Wikipedia: cuteness.
Scienceblogs: Gene Expression, Cats.
Some Cute search links at Dirty John Bonny.
[Update: February nineteenth: Cat link fixed.]
Somehow we humans respond to these cues in what might be seen, if looked at objectively, as exaggerated and excessive. Hence Pokemon, Hello Kitty, various Hallmark products, and DJB's own AnimalPals.
An essay by evolutionary biologist and science historian Stephen Jay Gould first published in Natural History magazine (1980?) used the evolution of the drawing of Mickey Mouse to illustrate the appeal of neotony.
He speculates that the Disney artists gradually came to recognize the appeal of childlike characteristics, and over time, Mickey grew a proportionally bigger head and eyes and smaller limbs.
He also observed that at the same time, other more "bad guy" or intentionally less sympathetic characters, tended toward more adult proportions.
Using this illustrative jumping-off point, he goes on to suggest that humans might be looked at as neotonous chimpanzees, and hints at what it may mean to our evolution.
Other experts have expanded the rules of cuteness, as seen here, at Cuteoverload.com.
There is considerable evidence that cats and dogs have been bred and selected for for neotonous characteristics. My own old-man cat occasionally goes tearing around the house in pursuit of imagined prey, to the amusement of both of us.It seems to me that when considering theories about the evolution of psychological characteristics versus morphological characteristics, the former is vulnerable to just-so stories while the latter has the relatively harder genetic, evo-devo, and historical fossil evidence.
But, to indulge in just-so analysis, it makes sense, given how complex our brains and social interactions are, that evolutionary psychological conditioning can spill over, so to speak.
So, our receptiveness to cuteness allowed our development of large brains and long, long, childhood and the required support and nurturing (note, for example, that we are the longest-lived primates). So long as the spillover is not overly maladaptive it would not have been selected out.So we like cute, wherever we find it.Links:
Stephen Jay Gould, A Biological Homage to Mickey Mouse.
Wikipedia: neotony.
Wikipedia: cuteness.
Scienceblogs: Gene Expression, Cats.
Some Cute search links at Dirty John Bonny.
[Update: February nineteenth: Cat link fixed.]
posted by Jack | 6:39 AM
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