You know the eyes.

You're sitting down after a long day at work. You've used your final ounces of energy to make the perfect meal. You grab the fork for the first bite, and RIGHT before the food hits your mouth, eye contact is made.

Your eyes are full of excitement, but your dogs' eyes are full of the most guilt evoking sadness and pathetic-ness you've ever seen.

The puppy-dog-eyes. You can blame evolution for those. Studies show it’s another example of dogs’ ability to communicate with humans, one that evolved as the animals were domesticated from wolves years ago.

According to The Washington Post -

A specific muscle causes the inner-eyebrow raise that makes dogs’ eyes appear bigger and more infant-like and produces a look similar to one humans make when sad. The researchers found that while six deceased dogs they dissected uniformly possessed this muscle, four dissected wolves either did not have it or barely did. They also found that 27 shelter dogs in the United Kingdom did the eyebrow-raise far more often and intensely when interacting with strangers than did nine wolves at two U.K. wildlife parks.

 

So thanks evolution, for thumbs & puppy-dog-eyes and a bunch of other stuff.

Listen to MJ on 97ZOK every morning 5:30 to 10 AM.  Follow her on Instagram and Facebook.  

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