From 'Aww' To Exploitation: The Cost Of Cute Wildlife – Luxurious Magazine

This past July, in Kenya, I visited an elephant orphanage. As the keepers described how each calf had arrived (mothers shot by poachers, families scattered by drought or conflict, etc.), the crowd around me lifted their phones. People called out and angled for selfies while the keepers bottle-fed milk to animals who had, quite literally, lost everything.

Staff did not respond to the tourists or remind visitors that only caretakers may interact with the calves. Occasionally, they did note that the goal is reintegration to the wild, not human entertainment.

When we frame animals as babies (think cute, harmless, dependent), we start to feel entitled to their bodies and attention. The “aww” becomes a permission slip.

The Austrian ethologist Konrad Lorenz called it Kindchenschema – the “baby schema” of big eyes, round faces, bobble-headed proportions that trigger caretaking impulses in us.

Modern neuroscience has updated the concept, showing that baby-schema faces are processed as rewarding and can motivate approach behaviour. You can even dial the effect up or down by subtly altering facial proportions.

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