The Cognitive Effects of Animals are Hardwired
From cute kittens to hideous centipedes animals of all types have big cognitive impact. People interacting with animals in positive and negative ways can amp up the impact. Take for example, a baby playing (safely) with a puppy.
And this effect runs deep. According to research done by CalTech and reported by NPR we have specific brain cells in our Amygdala (emotions center for the brain) that respond to the presence of animals but not other people, places or objects. These cells remain active as we automatically track animals and can detect small changes in them from scene to scene as compared to our ability to detect small changes in objects.
More generally:
“The finding confirms earlier work suggesting that the human brain is particularly responsive to animals. Behavioral studies, for instance, have found that people pay more attention to animals and people than to things.”
Leveraging this hardwiring, cognitive designers can use animal-based features and functions to get and hold attention and invoke specific emotional responses.
