Cute Baby Gene
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I heard an interesting theory a few years back when I first got into evolutionary psychology about how the cuteness of babies is a trait that helps babies to survive to adulthood.
According to the theory, at some point in human history there were both ugly babies, who instinctively repulse us, and cute babies, who instinctively draw us in. Since infants are totally helpless and utterly dependent on the kindness of older people to eat, drink and survive, it was and still is in a baby’s utmost advantage to appeal to the nurturing instincts of adults. This is especially true early on in human history where infant mortality rates were really high due to scarcity of resources, harsh living conditions and lack of medical knowledge. The cute babies trigger the nurturing instinct in humans automatically, in almost an involuntary fashion, which is what helped them thrive and dominate the population of babies. The ugly babies didn’t trigger this nurturing instinct, and as a result, they were less likely to survive into adulthood and pass their ugly baby genes on to the next generation.
This leads us to our current situation, where just about everyone in the population has the “cute baby” gene, because the “ugly baby” gene was weeded out by natural selection long, long ago. People usually don’t turn ugly until they get older and become more self-sufficient. At that point it’s safer to be ugly because they don’t have total dependence on others anymore and can fend for themselves. Plus their caretakers have emotional rapport and spiritual attachment to them, meaning they will still love and care for them regardless of what type of mutant they may have turned into once the cuteness wears off.
Here’s a snippet from an article about the same topic:
“We are inherently attracted to a specific set of characteristics, including large, symmetrical heads, large eyes, small mouths and small noses,” according to Jeffrey Kurland, associate professor of biological anthropology and human development. But why do almost all humans find this particular set of features so appealing?.
Reading this description of the type of babies people find cute made me think about a few things. Whenever you see someone, whether they have huge lips, a big nose, or tiny eyes as an adult, when you see their baby pictures they had small eyes, small noses and small lips. Their features changed when they got older and it was “safe” for their features to change. I have a big nose and lips for example, but it didn’t happen until closer to my teenage years, and it was a gradual process.
But what I wonder is, does this list of traits that we are instinctively drawn to in babies play any role in what we find attractive in adults? I mean, sure you have the Angelina Jolies and Mick Jaggers of the world who have huge lips and are considered sex symbols, but for the most part when looking at models the big eyes, small nose and small lips thing is a consistent draw. Even in cultures that traditionally have a lot of small eyes, big noses or big lips, a premium is still placed on people with big eyes, small noses and small lips. Look at black sex symbols like Beyonce and Halle Berry and they often fit this mold of having these overall features. In Asia, tons of actors and actresses get eye widening surgery to increase marketability, including Jackie Chan.
Another disturbing point of these features is that they are all typically associated with being Caucasian. Nowadays the popular line of thought is that the media brainwashes people to find “white” features attractive, but what does it mean for the rest of us non-Caucasians if it actually turns out that it’s an evolutionary preference?
Now keep in mind that there’s still a lot of evidence to the contrary, as there are lots of traits that make for a cute baby yet are not considered attractive in adults, like round faces and pudgy baby fat. And there are many sex symbols that don’t have the cute baby traits yet are considered universally gorgeous, like Angelina Jolie and her huge lips. Or maybe it’s that Angelina Jolie has other features that compensate for the lips like extra huge eyes and an extra small nose, so that the big lips are just considered an exotic quirk to help her stand out?
More from the article:
According to Kurland, infants who displayed cute features actually may have been healthier, and as adults more sexually attractive. They would have been more likely to survive and reproduce. Cuteness, in this case, is an indicator of good genes…
At some point in the distant past, it would seem, babies were not all cute. Their particular physical characteristics attracted no special attention. But once the “cuteness” preference took hold in the genes, babies had no choice but to become cuter over the generations. In effect, they had to wage a kind of cuteness war to get attention — and to this day people seemingly are helpless against the onslaught.
Which leads me to end on this somewhat disturbing video. If you have any doubt that we are hardwired to nurture babies, what it. It erased any doubts I had. It’s about a woman who created a lucrative business of making ultra-realistic baby dolls. I mean really realistic, to the point that you can’t tell they’re fake unless told. It’s in 5 parts, but I’m just including part 1. Unfortunately the Youtube user disable embedding so here’s the link: FAKE BABY VIDEO PART 1 (If you’re interested in seeing the remaining 4 parts, the links should be on the right side of the video).
What’s cool to see in this video is how these baby dolls are crafted so realistically that they are able to actually trigger this nurture gene, even after people are told the babies are fake. You have grown ass men being shown these babies after being told they’re fake, yet their voices still soften, their body language becomes nurturing and their whole demeanor shifts into a quivering mess of goo goo eyes and cooing. The video is also cool to watch because it’s really fucking disturbing and discomforting in other ways too when you see how attached seemingly sane people actually get to these dolls.
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[...] The Rawness wrote an interesting post today on Cute Baby GeneHere’s a quick excerptI heard an interesting theory a few years back when I first got into evolutionary psychology about how the cuteness of babies is a trait that helps babies to survive t o adulthood…. [...]
I think in general, what is hardwired into us is attraction to features that denote health and fertility. Traditionally this meant “fullness” of features including hips, chest and legs. Full lips are thought to be attractive for two reasons. 1. They indicate good blushing which indicates good blood flow etc. 2. For men, facial lips are proxy-symbols for vaginal lips. Sort of the human equivalent of red-baboon ass.
After a time, culture corrupted (maybe that’s a strong word) our natural perceptions of what is attractive and features that are identified as “white” became associated with beauty, but one could argue that this is happened for the same reason as throughout the 18th-20th centuries it was Europeans who were the wealthy and healthy in many non-European countries.
So i guess what i’m saying is I don’t think that caucasian features are evolutionarily preferred. In many cases I think the opposite is true. Technology makes culture more influential. Who’s dying of scurvy anymore? There’s now a decreased dependence on natural biological bases of stereotyping and an increased dependence on cultural bases.
Smash’s last blog post..The Library
Awesome point.
You know, after thinking about it further, I don’t think traditionally white features are the evolutionary preference either. The more I think about it, what we actually like is features from every race. We may not like mouths and noses huge, but we don’t like mouths and noses too small either. Same with color. People will snap on you for being too dark, but if you’re pasty white they’ll tell you to get a tan. Maybe that’s why people are physically infatuated with racially ambiguous people, because we unconsciously perceive them to have the best of all worlds from an evolutionary basis.
Speaking of cute I just wanted to let you know that I’m having major surgery to correct my deviated septum…. just saying…. DONT JUDGE ME!
Smash - one thing, I never really totally bought the whole big lips reminds of vagina thing. Seems a little far fetched to me. May be true, but I’m just a little skeptical. Plus it disturbs me to think dudes are looking at my mouth and thinking of the ‘tang. (Another reason why I need to avoid lockup at all costs)
VK - I just got a borderline Katt Williams perm, so I can’t judge nobody right now. (Don’t ask.)
Tell me you really got a perm. TELL ME YOU REALLY GOT A PERM!!! and rhino-plasty?!? i mean, what’s real problem that this is the medical solution? who among us doesn’t get stuffy around the season changes.
But back to the topic. Yeah, the lips thing can be pretty unsettling. Not only do i have big lips but they are definitely pinker than the rest of my face. And i have a big ass so I can’t never go to prison.
But the idea is-and i’ll try to dig up my source-is all our attractions to external femininine features are substitutes for hidden female sexual organs. most animals present when they are in heat, demonstrating their readiness and their freedom from nasty disease (no hanging scabs and such). and as much as i’d like that to go down in humans, it just doesn’t. so we have to go crazy for cleavage and full lips. EVEN BIG EYES help indicate help, demonstrating non-yellowing, etc.
as for mulattos, those confused bastards are destined to inherit the earth. I have a theory that that’s why the watchowskis put so many brown people in the matrix trilogy. (btw, Jada Pinkett is still fine as hell)
Smash’s last blog post..The Library
The perm was an experiment gone wrong, like Frankenstein or Mr. Hyde. At least for the first day. Man was it silky though. It’s settled into a nice Billy Dee Colt 45 wavy do, but there’s no telling what it’ll morph into next.
HOHOHOHOOOO!!!! I gotta see this thing! what possessed you to grow your hair out in the first place? what did my man, malcolm call you…”confused negro!”
HOHOHO!!! THAT’S TOO RICH!
Oh yeah, upon rereading the posts i noticed that my comments about the lips=vagina thing might be mis-construed. I’m not saying that a MALE’S FULL LIPS equates to a vagina but that FOR A MAN, a WOMAN’S full lips are visual substitutes for HER unseen vagina.
Not sure if that was clear.
But the theory does leave open the possibility than ANYONE’S lips are substitues for vaginas. I would imagine this happens often in prisons.
and one last thing…VAGINA!
Smash’s last blog post..The Library
It’s actually quite short and oh so subtle. It looks like a short Billy Dee 70s do, minus the shag mullet in the back. I just got really, really bored with my hair. I mean, if you don’t do dreds, what are your options? Afro, ceasar or baldie. So I tried to put in very slight relaxer to make it a little wavy, was aiming for Special Ed (the rapper, not the class) texture and then BOOM! ended up with the Enrique Iglesias. I have to say though, I can see how dudes get addicted to this perm shit. I spent the next hour giving myself faux-hawk, skater do, the Enrique Iglesias, the Richie Rich, the Buster Keaton, an old school Kirk Douglass flattop, raver spikes. By the next day it switched into Billy Dee mode and wasn’t so extreme anymore.
oh man, that’s great. I wish I wasn’t going bald. I’d definitely start growing out to dreads. I was close a few years back. then i got high and drunk one weekend, got a call from home that my bro was rebelling so i came home and cut it all off. BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE!
I’m growing my beard out to compensate.
But dude, the shag mullet is the best part. how cool do you hafta be to pull off a permed mullet!
Smash’s last blog post..The Library
Interesting article. It reminds me of my cousin who used to always say she can’t stand for ugly kids to be bad kids. She used to say, if they’re ugly they need to be the most well behaved children in the room, because nobody wants to deal with bad kids… let alone ugly bad kids.
Wrong I know, but she was being honest. I sure hope her baby (due in a couple months) is a cutie pie! LOL!
I won’t talk about you for having a perm… I’ll just laugh a little inside. =)
Brownngirl’s last blog post..Getting personal with the neighbors.
Smash - I’m working my way up to the permed mullet. Can’t hit them with all that new hotness all at once.
Brownngirl - Don’t hate, congratulate. My perm is fresh and clean, baby.
Thank you for the wonderful article. You gave me the new angle to look at the reality I was used to deal with. While painting, I have sensed that the roots of the artwork is the dialogue between the spirituality that expresses the eternities and continuous transformation of the outward appearances of the things we are dealing with. While the Spirit remains the same eternally, the exterior of our life don’t stop giving a good shake to us on a daily base.
All mentioned above looks the obvious (according to the painters, that is “moving into the picture (breaking through the surface of the canvas (the first impression), in spite of that your article set me back in awe.
Wow, I never had thought about SUCH transformation. That’s worthy to dig deeper indeed.
I can’t say anything more in a concrete at a moment, but reading of your article have stirred and awakened me indeed. Wow, I will discuss that with my friends. Thank you.
Tomas’s last blog post..investigation of ABC
Wow, spam is cool…
Maybe babies aren’t cute. Maybe we’re just wired to be attracted to the features present in babies so that we will care for them and babies have always looked the same way. It would be interesting to see one of these ugly unloved babies if they truly existed.
I don’t think small thin lips are considered attractive to anyone. Defining attractiveness by models is, umm, wrong, I think. Fashion designers and insecure or uninitiated girls find models attractive, but they are not particularly so for most people.
I find all kind of people attractive. In fact, I believe that attractive is the norm and most people are reasonably attractive. It can’t be defined by a specific set of features. I’m a “white girl” with big eyes and fairly fat lips. My nose is bigger than- some and I definitely fit the description “hippy” (I had a woman (a black woman) tell me I was looking “hippy” and needed to run it off to give a better explanation) and always have. I am also very attractive (not just subjectively or egotistically, actually).
There are beautiful people with very wide noses and small eyes. (Aside from the aforementioned models), very attractive narrow women.
I think culture defines beauty. What’s popular comes and goes, but that definition doesn’t make those consistently beautiful people with features deviating from whatever is popular any less attractive. Like, say, red may not be in vogue at the moment, but that doesn’t make the color ugly, and it doesn’t mean that people will stop liking it.
I would argue completely with the lips=vagina theory. Umm, guys, you should know they really look nothing alike. It’s kind of like saying the ears are projecting an image of sexual health and availability. There may be some social connotations, terminology that has been assigned and the connection between lips and oral sex, but no biological “display”.
(wow, I’ve written entirely too much) Oh, and Hi!
To clarify, my previous post makes little sense in parts. Please pretend I picked the right word to make my point.
Hi amanduh!
another reason why female fashion models are a horrible example to judge attractiveness by…they are picked by gay men and straight women, with straight men having little to no say in it all.
Could not agee with you more..
BLOG BLOG BLOG, PLEASE Blog some more Thanks for the great post (about Baby Gene) I think that Picture of permed hair style in regards to this topic is also important.
Normally I delete my spam, but dammit if that didn’t make me laugh.