Why do we find some animals so cute? What is it about certain creatures that just makes people melt?

Why are some animals adorable, whilst others are intimidating or repulsive? People say that bunny rabbits are cute,

but I haven't heard anyone call pythons cute, and that's not just because pythons eat people,

and rabbits eat carrots.

This isn't about fear. This isn't necessarily a rational measurement.

Panda bears, for example, are universally known to be cute, and while they are quite docile,

they can be dangerous when they want to be. Getting attacked by a panda is serious business.

Cute is not a synonym for harmless. No, it's not about how closely related an animal is to us either.

People don't usually call adult opossums cute, for example.

But everyone says cockpose and buddragars are adorable. Our cuteness radar, in some cases,

selects for some birds over some mammals. Where is the evolutionary sense in that? People have

told me they think sunfish are cute, and that just seems wild to me from a natural selection point of view.

So this isn't about danger levels or closeness on the phylogenetic tree.

I'll tell you right now, this is about something else.

Traits.

There are traits we all find cute.

Fuzzy hair, around body, and dainty facial features, save for big eyes and a big forehead. If the being is small, all the better. Across human cultures, these traits are defined as cute. Inasmuch as cute can be a scientific fact, these traits are cute. What creature has

all those traits? A baby human. We evolved to find baby humans cute because guess what? People who

find their kids cute are going to pay more attention to their kids and they are going to have a higher

chance of their

lineage surviving. We evolved to find this set of traits adorable. But our cuteness radar,

constantly scanning for human babies to love, can misfire spectacularly. Corporations looking to

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