JulianMorrison comments on Babies and Bunnies: A Caution About Evo-Psych - Less Wrong

52 Post author: Alicorn 22 February 2010 01:53AM

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Comment author: JulianMorrison 22 February 2010 11:45:59AM 15 points [-]

Maybe the bunny has evolutionarily converged on the mammal shared cuteness pattern, but the baby has been forced to diverge by other pressures? Human babies are born very underdeveloped relative to other species. I've read speculation that this is due to the upright walking, hip shape, head size, brain size compromise, and that seems sensible to me. Cuteness optimization may have been shoved aside as lower priority.

Comment author: jsalvatier 15 February 2013 06:54:54PM 0 points [-]

I think people often observe that several month old babies are cuter than newborns, then again I think the same thing is true of many animals, for example, baby chicks.

Comment author: HughRistik 22 February 2010 07:39:19PM 0 points [-]

Excellent observation. I was thinking the same thing.