SCIENCE CONFIRMS : Puppy Cuteness Is Perfectly Timed to Manipulate Humans
Dogs become most irresistible to people justwhen they need us most.
In a study published, researchers sought to pin down, scientifically, the timeline of puppy cuteness.Their finding largely matched that of breeders: Peopleconsistently rated dogs most attractive when they were six to eight weeks old.This age coincides with a crucial developmental milestone: Mother dogs stopnursing their young around the eighth week, after which pups rely on humans forsurvival. (Puppies without human caretakers face mortality rates of up to 95percent in their first year of life.) Peak cuteness , is no accident—at exactly the moment whenour intervention matters most, puppies become irresistible to us. It doesn’t hurt that humans seem to be especially vulnerable to cutethings. Research dating back to the 1940s shows that virtually any creature with babylike features—large eyes,a bulging forehead, short limbs—is capable of drawing our affection, from sealsand koalas to the inanimate Mickey Mouse.