Steven Pinker -- How the Mind Works - Hampshire High Italian ...

Family Values 445decision of whether to keep the baby. The ethologist Konrad Lorenzpointed out that the geometry of babies—a large head, a bulbous cranium,large eyes low in the face, pudgy cheeks, and short limbs—elicits tendernessand affection. The geometry comes from the baby-assembly process.The head end grows fastest in the womb, and the other end catches upafter birth; babies grow into their brain and their eyes. Lorenz showed thatanimals with that geometry, such as ducks and rabbits, strike people ascute. In his essay "A Biological Homage to Mickey Mouse," Stephen JayGould showed that cartoonists exploit the geometry to make their charactersmore appealing. It's conceivable that the genes exploit it too, exaggeratingthe juvenile features of a newborn, particularly those that signal goodhealth, to make it look cuter to its mother.Once a child is allowed to live, the battle between the generationscontinues. How could an offspring hold its own in the battle? As Triversnotes, babies cannot fling their mothers to the ground and nurse at will;they have to use psychological tactics. A baby has to manipulate its parents'genuine concern for its welfare to induce them to give more thanthey would otherwise be willing to give. Since parents can learn to ignorecries of "wolf," the tactics have to be more insidious. An infant knows itsown condition better than a parent does, because the infant's brain isconnected to sensors throughout its body. Both the parent and the infanthave an interest in the parent's responding to the infant's needs, such asby feeding it when it is hungry and cuddling it when it is cold. That givesthe infant an opening to elicit more care than the parent wants to give.The baby can cry when it is not so cold or hungry, or withhold a smileuntil it gets its way. The baby need not literally be faking. Since parentsshould evolve to recognize sham crying, the baby's most effective tacticmight be to feel genuinely miserable, even when there is no biologicalneed. Self-deception may begin early.The child can also resort to extortion by howling at night or throwinga tantrum in public, situations in which the parents are averse to lettingthe noise continue and are apt to capitulate. Worse, the parents' interestin their children's welfare allows the children to hold themselveshostage, say, by thrashing about in a violent tantrum or refusing to dosomething both parties know the child would enjoy. Thomas Schellingnotes that children are in an excellent position to use paradoxical tactics(Chapter 6). They can cover their ears, scream, avoid their parents' gaze,or regress, all of which prevent them from registering or understandingtheir parents' threats. We get the evolution of the brat.