Why we find young babies cute?

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Img source: https://www.cutebabyblog.com/cute-baby-images/

Large eyes, large heads, small torsos...why do the combination of these things make us go aww with cuteness everytime we encouter it? Whether it be a human baby or a tiny kitten we cannot help ourselves from melting from the cuteness overload. 


What causes this phenomena? If the science and evolutionary psychology grapevine is to be believed, we are genetically programmed and we are ingrained on a genetic level to find these qualities cute. As one user on Reddit stated



"All mammals are programmed to find certain things cute. Large eyes to head ratios. Large head to body ratios. Overall tininess. Those sorts of things. Because all mammalian babies display these traits, at least in comparison to their adult forms, we have evolved to think those traits are adorable so that we are compelled to protect our young. It's the same reason we find kittens and puppies cute.
When it comes to old people, they usually have the opposite of these things. Their head to body ratio is not as wide as a baby's so that's not "cute." While eyes barely grow over our lifetime, our heads do grow so that narrows that ratio. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for the elderly to have hooded eyelids making their eyes appear even smaller. "



A very interesting take on something we give little thought to. We'll now you know why. So the next time you want to cuddle a cute little baby goat or cannot stop yourself from pulling the cheeks of a young little baby, you know exactly what's making you do it.



Img Sources: https://www.cutebabyblog.com/cute-baby-images/

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