we are configured to find child-like things cute, and they theyre appearance throws a lot of that at us.
owls have giant, child-like eyeballs. bears have roly-poly bodies..
If not friend, why friend shaped?
You just listed a bunch of mammals, not a representative sample of predators. You think lobsters and spiders are cuter than cuter than deer and koalas?
edit: oops, 4 mammals and a bird
Good point.
Which raises another paradox: attractive does not seem to be a proxy for appetizing.
At least for most people. Personally I find lobsters creepy as hell and would never even touch one much less eat it.
Spiders of the sea. Crabs too. I wouldn't want to touch one that wasn't cooked.
Although I find the comparison discomforting to think about, the sea spiders both go well with butter and are generally regarded as delicious.
That introduces the question: if there were a land spider large enough to nullify the risk/reward/deliciousness equation, would I give it a try? My gut answer is no, but I think the realistic answer is, "I'll wait and see what my fellow apes do with it first. If they have any good recipes, probably yes."
Fascinating subject. I seem to be out of the ordinary here. To me it is completely unignorable that crustaceans are arthropods, i.e., close cousins of insects and spiders, which I would never be able to eat. Ergo, I find the idea of eating crabs and lobsters and shrimps just as gross as the idea of eating tarantulas and would never touch any of them.
Similarly, it is completely obvious to me that rats and mice are close cousins of hamsters and squirrels. Hence I find them all equally cute and cuddly.
My guess is that my mind is abnormally literal. In other words I'm probably a bit autistic. Most people are just more socially conditioned than me. Waiting to see what their fellow apes do first, as you put it.
What's funny is that I also think I'm on the spectrum.
And to continue the conversation - my husband and I have been talking about visiting a South American country this summer where roasted guinea pig is on the menu. I honestly think I could give it a try even though I try to save any mice that my cats corner.
Food choices are both weird and personal. I'll always respect that.
Yeah I could eat guinea pig. At a pinch.
I read once that all mammal flesh is roughly indistinguishable in texture and taste. Yes, including humans. Chimps think nothing of chowing on monkeys. The reality is that we're all extremely close cousins.
It's basically all just culture, as you say. Enjoy your guinea-pig stew.
Excellent question! I was pondering exactly this conundrum just the other day while watching a snow leopard on BBC Earth. That thing would rip your face off but wow, what a gorgeous beast! I almost ache to pet it.
Actually my pondering went even further. Not only are cats and owls and bears cute, they are much cuter than than our cousins the primates. And it get worse! I for one find that monkeys are cuter than apes, and that our closest cousins the chimpanzees are really pretty fugly indeed. Even the babies. Maybe especially the babies.
What a weird world.
It’s a bit like how people closely related to you are not attractive.
Except in Alabama
I think it's more like an uncanny valley phenomenon. Or it could be that humans are largely neotenous and other primates haven't developed that trait, so they remind us of old, or diseased members of our own species at a unconscious level.
Or it could be both. Strange hairy men that live in the woods? Avoidance response activated.
Yep, that's the self-domestication thesis. Humans have selected themselves to look young and inoffensive, a bit like how they transformed wild ox into cows and wolves into, uh, poodles.
It definitely explains the ape paradox.
Ha. Except, jokes aside, I'm not sure it's true. Obviously this is getting into dangerous territory but, as I understand it, people do tend to go for their own ethnic group disproportionately.
Then again, sexual attraction does seem to be qualitatively different. After all, that snow leopard would go straight to the friend zone if you know what I mean.
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