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'Puppy Dog Eyes' May Have Evolved Just to Make Humans Melt - And It's Working
You know how when your dog wants something, she makes that face? You know the one - all beseeching, with eyes that seem to positively quiver with longing? You'd give her anything, right?
It turns out that our response to canine looks of longing or love may be the very reason dogs can make them. New research has found that the facial muscles involved in making these expressions can only be found in dogs, not wolves - suggesting our furry best friends evolved the ability specifically to communicate with humans.
"The findings suggest that expressive eyebrows in dogs may be a result of human unconscious preferences that influenced selection during domestication," said behavioural psychologist Juliane Kaminski of the University of Portsmouth.
"When dogs make the movement, it seems to elicit a strong desire in humans to look after them. This would give dogs that move their eyebrows more, a selection advantage over others and reinforce the 'puppy dog eyes' trait for future generations."
[...]For this research, the team did something different: they studied dog (Canis familiaris) behaviour as compared to wolves (C. lupus), and performed a comparative analysis of the facial anatomy of both species.
[...]"To determine whether this eyebrow movement is a result of evolution, we compared the facial anatomy and behaviour of these two species and found the muscle that allows for the eyebrow raise in dogs was, in wolves, a scant, irregular cluster of fibres," said anatomist Anne Burrows of Duquesne University.
"The raised inner eyebrow movement in dogs is driven by a muscle which doesn't consistently exist in their closest living relative, the wolf."
[...]The research has been published in PNAS.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 18 2019, @08:45PM (5 children)
I tried it on my wife, and she called me a "pitiful useless wimp" and left to go shop.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 18 2019, @08:57PM
Keep at it and you could have the BDSM cuckold relationship that your fellow betas can only dream of.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 18 2019, @09:19PM
At least you got rid of her for awhile.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by deadstick on Wednesday June 19 2019, @12:19AM (2 children)
Try the other puppy trick: tilt your head.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 19 2019, @01:40AM (1 child)
And put your tongue out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @01:46AM
Eat the pussy like a watermelon.