Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization

by Edward Slingerland

One of the reasons that dogs strike us as so cute is that, relative to their wolf ancestors, they display “neoteny,” the extension of juvenile characteristics into adulthood. In other words, even as adults they look and act like wolf pups, with rounded, puppy-like features, an intense desire to play, and a readiness to trust. As the play researcher Stuart Brown notes, adult human beings, in both our appearance and playfulness, are essentially the “Labradors of the primate world.”26 We look, and behave, more like chimp babies than chimp adults. Species that display neoteny (like dogs) tend to be more flexible but less efficient and self-sufficient; those showing mature characteristics (like wolves) are brutally efficient but rigid. In the same way that an extended period of childhood tends to predict cognitive flexibility, across a broad range of species there appears to be a positive correlation between brain size and playfulness.27 Human children, like dog pups, are thus doubly immature: youthful versions of a species that itself retains youthful characteristics.