Yikes. Didn’t see the LW poll results. I just remember the initial comments on this discussion, where pretty much everyone was saying the baby is cuter, and getting modded up.
We could just as easily imagine the selection bias having worked the other way (LessWrongers are hardly a representative sample and some have motivated reasons for choosing one way or another, especially having read through the thread), but you’re of course right that, in any case, this sample isn’t telling us much.
I thought the baby was cuter… but why bother voting in a meaningless poll like this? (No offense :P)
People that find human infants cuter than rabbit, dog, or cat infants isn’t a direct contradiction of the hypothesis, as humans would be particularly likely to find human infants cute (just as dogs are particularly likely to be protective and nurturing to puppies).
The point is that animals with large litters are particularly likely to have cute infants other things (like degree of genetic closeness) equal, and that large litter animals would be sufficiently cute to overcome the fact that we’re not related. Of course, domestic puppies and kittens have an advantage over wild animals, as much selection was based on human popularity.
People that find human infants cuter than rabbit, dog, or cat infants isn’t a direct contradiction of the hypothesis, as humans would be particularly likely to find human infants cute (just as dogs are particularly likely to be protective and nurturing to puppies).
The point is that animals with large litters are particularly likely to have cute infants other things (like degree of genetic closeness) equal, and that large litter animals would be sufficiently cute to overcome the fact that we’re not related. Of course, domestic puppies and kittens have an advantage over wild animals, as much selection was based on human popularity.
I find the bunny cuter than any human baby I ever seen, and I believe that the majority of people will share the same feeling, but our opinions are aneddotical and do not constitute scientific proof.
What we need is to take a statistically unbiased sample of people and asking who is cuter between the two, eliminating in this way the random influences (positive or negative) on the istinctive cuteness reaction caused by cultural bias or personal experiences, because those should be distributed equally and then cancelling each other, while the genetic bias should emerge as the dominant result being shared by all the people in the sample. Maybe someone will do a study about cuteness in the future, corroborating my theory or falsifing it. But the point is that there is nothing “unscientific” about evolutionary psychology. It’s a science, and it’s the best model of the human psychology ever developed.
What about the fact that most people here didn’t find the bunny cuter than the baby? And that this is probably true in general?
I’m not sure that’s been established. Doesn’t this say otherwise?
Not if you believe (http://thecutest.info/top.html)
Yikes. Didn’t see the LW poll results. I just remember the initial comments on this discussion, where pretty much everyone was saying the baby is cuter, and getting modded up.
Very, very strange.
Selection bias. Those of us (including myself) who agreed with Alicorn probably didn’t feel a need to reply just to signal their agreement.
We could just as easily imagine the selection bias having worked the other way (LessWrongers are hardly a representative sample and some have motivated reasons for choosing one way or another, especially having read through the thread), but you’re of course right that, in any case, this sample isn’t telling us much.
I thought the baby was cuter… but why bother voting in a meaningless poll like this? (No offense :P)
People that find human infants cuter than rabbit, dog, or cat infants isn’t a direct contradiction of the hypothesis, as humans would be particularly likely to find human infants cute (just as dogs are particularly likely to be protective and nurturing to puppies).
The point is that animals with large litters are particularly likely to have cute infants other things (like degree of genetic closeness) equal, and that large litter animals would be sufficiently cute to overcome the fact that we’re not related. Of course, domestic puppies and kittens have an advantage over wild animals, as much selection was based on human popularity.
Thus, the question is whether you find say Infant Elephants as cute as infant (wild) rabbits or Wolf Puppies.
The baby elephants I saw on safari recently were pretty cute:
People that find human infants cuter than rabbit, dog, or cat infants isn’t a direct contradiction of the hypothesis, as humans would be particularly likely to find human infants cute (just as dogs are particularly likely to be protective and nurturing to puppies).
The point is that animals with large litters are particularly likely to have cute infants other things (like degree of genetic closeness) equal, and that large litter animals would be sufficiently cute to overcome the fact that we’re not related. Of course, domestic puppies and kittens have an advantage over wild animals, as much selection was based on human popularity.
Thus, the question is whether you find say Infant Elephants as cute as infant (wild) rabbits or Wolf Puppies.
I find the bunny cuter than any human baby I ever seen, and I believe that the majority of people will share the same feeling, but our opinions are aneddotical and do not constitute scientific proof. What we need is to take a statistically unbiased sample of people and asking who is cuter between the two, eliminating in this way the random influences (positive or negative) on the istinctive cuteness reaction caused by cultural bias or personal experiences, because those should be distributed equally and then cancelling each other, while the genetic bias should emerge as the dominant result being shared by all the people in the sample. Maybe someone will do a study about cuteness in the future, corroborating my theory or falsifing it. But the point is that there is nothing “unscientific” about evolutionary psychology. It’s a science, and it’s the best model of the human psychology ever developed.
Huh? More people who bothered to vote found the bunny cuter.