I don’t think I understand. The hypothesis says that we evolved to find human babies cute because people who find babies cute are more likely to take care of them and then they’ll reproduce and propagate those genes. I guess there’s no strong reason why that necessarily means that we have to find human babies cuter than anything else: if the “appreciating cuteness” faculty happened for some random reason to glom extra hard onto bunnies there probably there wouldn’t be any very strong selective pressure against it (though as Alicorn points out, there would probably be some slight pressure). Is that what you mean?
Yes. I would also guess that the framing of this problem is also the cause of some of the confusion. As others have noted, newborns are not the optimal target of a cuteness response, that would be something more like four year olds, e.g. maximally expensive children with a large sunk cost. Also, Alicorn may have unusual perceptions of cuteness and no-one may have wanted to contradict a perception. I just actually looked at Google Images and my conclusion is that babies are cuter than bunnies, though not by enough that as a good frequentest I could refute that null hypotheses that bunnies and babies are the same thing. My wife and I have previously observed, while walking in the park, that as the theory predicts boy babies are cuter than girls except when the girls are Chinese, presumably due to the greater parental investment required by boys and the history of unusually frequent female infanticide in China.
What does the hypothesis predict?
That organisms which don’t have offspring that look like human babies will not experience the same things as cute as humans do.
I don’t think I understand. The hypothesis says that we evolved to find human babies cute because people who find babies cute are more likely to take care of them and then they’ll reproduce and propagate those genes. I guess there’s no strong reason why that necessarily means that we have to find human babies cuter than anything else: if the “appreciating cuteness” faculty happened for some random reason to glom extra hard onto bunnies there probably there wouldn’t be any very strong selective pressure against it (though as Alicorn points out, there would probably be some slight pressure). Is that what you mean?
Another thing to keep in mind is Eliezer’s example of finding a human baby in the woods. Or worse yet, on your doorstep.
In other words, the cuteness reaction can arguably work against you by making you vulnerable to cuckoldry.
Yes.
I would also guess that the framing of this problem is also the cause of some of the confusion. As others have noted, newborns are not the optimal target of a cuteness response, that would be something more like four year olds, e.g. maximally expensive children with a large sunk cost. Also, Alicorn may have unusual perceptions of cuteness and no-one may have wanted to contradict a perception. I just actually looked at Google Images and my conclusion is that babies are cuter than bunnies, though not by enough that as a good frequentest I could refute that null hypotheses that bunnies and babies are the same thing.
My wife and I have previously observed, while walking in the park, that as the theory predicts boy babies are cuter than girls except when the girls are Chinese, presumably due to the greater parental investment required by boys and the history of unusually frequent female infanticide in China.