Distract yourself from the election by learning about cute puppies

Photo by Alvan Nee on Unsplash

If you’re anything like me, there’s currently a knot in your stomach twisting in all kinds of directions thanks to the United States Presidential Election. For both of our sakes, let’s learn all about the science of cute puppies to distract us from the days ahead.

Sound good?

The science of cute

Photo by Sergio Souza on Unsplash

Here’s a gratuitous cute puppy image to start us off. What it is it about baby animal faces that makes us stare and smile? Part of it drills down to a psychological concept called attachment theory.

According to attachment theory, developed by psychologist John Bowlby, there is a special type of relationship between a human and their caregiver. We experience attachment at a young age because it gives us a survival advantage—a parent’s caregiving instinct causes them to provide their child with food, safety, and security.

Our caregiving reflexes jump into action when we see cute babies because have an innate desire to take care of them: they keep our attention and make us smile, even if they’re not a direct family relation.

The missing puzzle piece connecting cute babies to cute animals, though, is this: our caregiving reflex responds not only to actual babies, but to things that have similar features to babies. Those features include smallness, round cheeks, big heads, and big eyes.

Take a look at the picture below and see if any of those qualities sound familiar.

Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

Cute animals trigger our instinct to provide care just like babies do. When an animal in a photo does something that might indicate that it needs care—a wide-eyed face, for example—a hormone called oxytocin is released in our brains. Oxytocin is called the cuddle hormone because it is released when people bond socially; it's the hormone that promotes bonding between a mother and a child. Thanks to oxytocin, our bonding with puppy pictures is what makes us perceive them as cute.

How cuteness helps us—right here, right now

Looking at a cute animal picture triggers our bonding instincts and releases oxytocin in our brains. Higher levels of oxytocin in the brain relate to a lower heart rate and blood pressure, both of which are stress-relieving signs from the body. Oxytocin can also control levels of cortisol, known as the stress hormone. So, there could be a scientific basis for that Buzzfeed baby animal article providing you with some comfort in these trying times.

Researchers are also investigating whether looking at puppy pics can increase productivity. In a 2012 study by a Japanese researcher, participants who looked at pictures of puppies or Grumpy Cat videos were better at concentration and skill-related tasks, like the game Operation. In early 2020, a study found that stressed-out students who watched a short slideshow with pictures and videos of cute animals had lower heart rates and a reduced amount of anxiety. Additional trials were cut off by the advent of COVID-19, so the question of how exactly cuteness can help us out in the long run still remains.

In this tumultuous time period, dust off your caregiving reflexes and let puppies take your mind off things. If I haven’t convinced you by this point, how can you say no to this face?

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash