“You’ve got the cutest little baby face” crooned many singers over the years, but do we really choose who we love based on their facial characteristics? A recent group of researchers thinks we do, at least for our dogs.¹
Dogs are descended from wolves, although our modern dog differs significantly from his lupine ancestor. ² Some people believe that wolves who were more tolerant to human presence took advantage of scavenging opportunities to become the dogs we know today. But then people may have started to take control of how dogs evolved.
The study followed how quickly dogs were adopted from a shelter environment based on their facial structure to see if they could find a link to dogs’ facial expression and conformation with their rate of adoption. They felt that this data would be more reflective of how human preference could have affected which dogs were chosen to breed over the years. The theory is that humans selectively prefer dogs with infantile faces, i.e. large eyes and taller face height, a trait called paedomorphism.
The dogs that were rated as more paedomorphic did show a statistical difference in their rate of adoption since dogs with infantile facial features were chosen more quickly, but the authors noted that the same facial expression may not only resemble an infant or puppy, but also may be perceived as a look of sadness.
The authors concluded that human preference for facial features was indeed a selective pressure in the development of dogs as we know them today. So whether your dog tugs your heart strings because he looks like a baby or a puppy or because he looks sad, it is working for him!
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- PLoS One. 2013 Dec 26;8(12):e82686. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0082686. eCollection 2013.Paedomorphic facial expressions give dogs a selective advantage.Waller BM, Peirce K, Caeiro CC, Scheider L, Burrows AM, McCune S, Kaminski J.
- Hare B, Wobber V, Wrangham R (2012) The self-domestication hypothesis: evolution of bonobo psychology is due to selection against aggression. Animal Behaviour83: 573–585
