50 Adorable Animals That Might Brighten Up Your Day (New Pics)

So, why do folks like cute animals? Would you be surprised to learn that it’s likely evolution and how our brain is built?

In an article by Psychology Today, Dr. Hal Herzog discusses how beauty affects the moral standing of various species and how a beauty bias can influence the unconscious attribution of more socially desirable traits to more attractive people.

This explains why humans end up caring more about cute animals than less cute ones. The article speculates that it might be caused by the fact that cute animals remind us of human babies. Animals with characteristics like big eyes and soft facial features can trigger parental care instincts. In other words, that’s why you melt at the sight of adorableness.

Another explanation could be the so-called “Beauty Is Good Stereotype,” or, in scientific terms, an attractiveness bias.

Researchers already knew of the human tendency to view attractive people as more intelligent and competent compared to those less appealing, so they did the same testing with cute animals.

The end result of that study was that the participants showed a tendency to be more concerned about beautiful animals than the not-so-beautiful ones, despite their ability to suffer or experience pleasure all the same, and regardless of whether they could pose a potential threat towards humans.

There was even a follow-up study that aimed to fill in the gaps and compensate for the shortcomings of the first study.

That one also confirmed that beauty is kind and that folks have a tendency to view and assume more beautiful animals in a more positive light.

But why does any of this matter? Interestingly enough, consider animal rights organizations—wouldn’t they be able to possibly get more donations if they use particular pictures? Maybe ones that were once ugly pictures of endangered species, but got visually manipulated to look more attractive? It is a certain kind of marketing that might prove very effective.

And, hey, there’s more to cute animals than just having an evolutionary bias.

Cute animals have the potential of increasing marital satisfaction. All you need is six months of conditioning. And that’s not just satisfaction with their spouses but overall with the marriage.

Other benefits include images of cute animals managing to lift one’s mood, in turn building resilience to negative effects and being more inclined to work towards a brighter future.

In fact, videos of cute animals are strong mood changers which can trigger “upward positivity spirals” thus encouraging life satisfaction and resilience to stress.

Oh, and yeah, watching cute animals relieves stress.

Lastly, there is evidence that cute animals might boost productivity. Folks who are exposed to cute animal pics before and after work tasks tend to get more done and generally perform because it narrows their focus.