Cute dogs are manipulating you – their faces have evolved at shocking speed to look sadder and their eyes bigger, science proves
- Researchers have discovered dogs have a facial muscle that has evolved over the past 33,000 years, enabling them to perform the ‘puppy dog eyes’ act
- It is much more difficult for wolves to raise the inner corner of their brows in the same way
Ever wonder why dogs are able to melt hearts the way they do? A group of researchers in the US and the UK may have an answer for you.
As it turns out, researchers discovered dogs have a facial muscle that has evolved over the past 33,000 years, making their eyes look bigger and their faces sadder, younger and cuter, reeling in the humans who come across them.
In other words, “puppy dog eyes” are real, dogs are manipulating humans and it’s all thanks to domestication.
The group’s initial study, “Evolution of facial muscle anatomy in dogs”, was published in 2019 by the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, or PNAS. Last week, one of the researchers presented the latest findings on how dogs’ facial muscle make-up is more similar to humans at an “Experimental Biology” meeting in Philadelphia, in the US state of Pennsylvania.