Dogs May Have Evolved With ‘Puppy Dog Eyes’ To Communicate With Humans, Study Finds

Have you ever fallen for those cute little ‘puppy dog eyes’? Don’t worry that’s not your fault. There is a new study that found that dogs have evolved new facial muscles specifically to get catch hold of your heartstrings over the course of thousands of years of domestication. Unlike wolves, dogs have a muscle responsible for raising the inner eyebrow “specifically for facial communication with humans,” according to research published in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. “The movement makes the eyes appear bigger, hence more infant-like and potentially more appealing to humans,” researchers said. “This inner brow raise also resembles a facial movement humans produce when they are sad, potentially eliciting a nurturing response from humans.” Researchers also observed the behavior of 27 dogs and nine wolves interacting with humans and found the dogs raised their eyebrows more and at higher intensities than the wolves. They are cute little creatures who love us unconditionally and making such puppy dog eyes is just a cute factor. So when your dog next times those eyes you know what he wants.