This also might explain why some of us think that babies are cute, and others of us don’t: Not that babies themselves are potentially dangerous, but that messing with someone else’s baby is potentially dangerous, particularly if the baby belongs to someone who’s not a tribemate. I suspect that finding a given baby cute correlates with how much we trust the baby’s parents; in the case of strangers’ babies, it would correlate with our priors regarding how dangerous it is to interact with strangers.
This doesn’t explain why some stranger’s babies register as cuter than others, though—perhaps that correlates with how much the babies look like people who we believe would trust us to interact with their babies?
Do people who consider adult cats and dogs dangerous find kittens and puppies cute? I’ve only known a few people in the former categories, but those people didn’t.
This also might explain why some of us think that babies are cute, and others of us don’t: Not that babies themselves are potentially dangerous, but that messing with someone else’s baby is potentially dangerous, particularly if the baby belongs to someone who’s not a tribemate. I suspect that finding a given baby cute correlates with how much we trust the baby’s parents; in the case of strangers’ babies, it would correlate with our priors regarding how dangerous it is to interact with strangers.
This doesn’t explain why some stranger’s babies register as cuter than others, though—perhaps that correlates with how much the babies look like people who we believe would trust us to interact with their babies?
Baby cats and dogs also might not be dangerous, but might be dangerous to mess with as well.
If more trustworthy strangers have cuter babies, does this mean that all animals are more trustworthy than people?
Of course—there are no evil cats plotting to take over the world.
Do people who consider adult cats and dogs dangerous find kittens and puppies cute? I’ve only known a few people in the former categories, but those people didn’t.