Scientifically speaking, why are things cute?

Scientifically speaking, why are things cute?

when its tiny and seems unthreatening

because noetherian rings have the property that every proper ideal is finitely generated

Care for offspring

Wtf that orange thing could be my offspring?!

It shares traits that we are programmed to see as cute resembling that of a human infant, by coincidence.

If you see a rock that looks like a face your brain can't help but see a face even though the rock wasn't designed to have a face.

Abstract Algebra by Dummit and Foote

Because they look like one of these; human babies or small critters that would be a waste of energy to hunt for food.

You think that alien blob is cute? The fuck is wrong with you?

>we evolved to see small animals as cute so we don't waste energy to hunt them
how exactly do you see this playing into who passes on their genes?

Not sure how to interpret the question.

If you're asking why we find them cute, I think it's a trait created with our limbic system to experience empathy, which lets us view the animal as non-threatening - i.e. our amygdala causes a response to see the animal as passive, which inhibits any hunting or malicious traits in us.

If you're asking why things are cute in their existence, I think it's perhaps to activate the first response in us, or just by mere coincidence they appear that way. Most cute things have features of human babies like said, we just see them as cute because they resemble human offspring, which we believe are inherently cute due to the non-threatening, mimicking nature they have.

So your penis?

is this even a bait?

>Most cute things have features of human babies like said, we just see them as cute because they resemble human offspring, which we believe are inherently cute due to the non-threatening, mimicking nature they have.

So why do I find kittens cute but not human babies? Give me a furry fluffball over a bald, screaming tomato any day.

No. But you are programmed to like certain babby traits. Babby octopussy those same babby traits.

they resemble offspring

after animals were domesticated there may also have been an evolutionary incentive not to harm, neglect or immediately kill every animal you see

Because there exist no imaginary root of Zeta(s) outside the critical line.

Because they look like todlers

third post best post

>after animals were domesticated there may also have been an evolutionary incentive not to harm, neglect or immediately kill every animal you see
This pretty much. Doggies participated in human evolution not very long ago.

...

Someone who decides to go kill an antelope would have more food than someone who wastes their time hunting gerbils, so they would have a better chance at passing on genes.

Large foreheads, large eyes, small things = cute