'Puppy Dog Eyes' May Have Evolved Just to Make Humans Melt - And It's Working

狗的“无辜眼神”可能是为了萌化人类才进化出来的，显然这招很奏效

You know how when your dog wants something, she makes that face? You know the one - all beseeching, with eyes that seem to positively quiver with longing? You'd give her anything, right?

你知道你的狗狗想要某个东西时是故意做出那种表情的吗？你知道那种闪耀着渴望的乞求的眼神吗？她要什么你都愿意给，对吧？

It turns out that our response to canine looks of longing or love may be the very reason dogs can make them.

研究发现我们对犬类这种渴求或爱的眼神的回应可能导致狗狗有那种眼神。

New research has found that the facial muscles involved in making these expressions can only be found in dogs, not wolves - suggesting our furry best friends evolved the ability specifically to communicate with humans.

新的研究发现做这种表情牵动的面部肌肉只有狗狗有，狼就没有，这就表明我们的毛茸茸的好朋友专门为了跟人类沟通而进化出了这种能力。

"The findings suggest that expressive eyebrows in dogs may be a result of human unconscious preferences that influenced selection during domestication," said behavioural psychologist Juliane Kaminski of the University of Portsmouth.

朴茨茅斯大学的行为心理学家Juliane Kaminski说：“研究结果表明人类驯化狗狗时无意识的选择偏好导致狗狗有了富有表情的眉毛。”

"When dogs make the movement, it seems to elicit a strong desire in humans to look after them. This would give dogs that move their eyebrows more, a selection advantage over others and reinforce the 'puppy dog eyes' trait for future generations."

“狗狗做出这种表情时会激起人类强烈的照顾它们的欲望，这就促使狗狗更多地抖动眉毛，这也成为了一种选择优势，使这种‘撒娇眼神’成为了遗传给后代的特征。”

Previously, Kaminski and her team have demonstrated that dogs do actually make facial expressions as a means of communicating with humans, by studying their behaviour when a human was facing towards them, compared to facing away.

此前Kaminski和她的团队证实了狗狗的确会把面部表情作为和人类沟通的一种工具，他们研究了人面向狗狗和面向别处时狗狗的行为。

The team found that dogs used facial expressions far more when the human was looking at them.

这个团队发现人看着狗狗时它们的面部表情更多。