Whether you’re a staunch royalist or a republican, the recent photos of Will and Kate’s family on their skiing holiday may have at least elicited an ‘Awww.’
This is because we are neurobiologically hardwired to find Prince George and Princess Charlotte’s features very cute. The basic ratio of children’s eyes to the size of their head provokes a fundamental protective reaction in our brains.
Humans are able to distinguish subtle differences in facial features, but as the survival of the species is so important to us, big eyes and small noses send a clear signal to the brain.
If we didn’t find children cute, it would be much more difficult to cope with the extreme irritation and sleep-deprivation caused by raising them, and we might not be as good at helping them survive. In prehistoric and some contemporary societies, childrearing is not always done by the parents, so this neurobiological mechanism has developed to be very strong.
In fact, it is so powerful that it’s even transferable to other species - explaining why we coo over puppies, cartoons and even robots. After all, it takes quite a lot to make a pampered royal seem adorable.
Dr Daniel Glaser is director of Science Gallery at King’s College London
