Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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Our love for talking animal cartoons has an evolutionary purpose: assigning human traits to non-humans kept our ancestors wary of potential dangers. Anthropomorphism activates parts of the brain involved in social behavior and drives our emotional connection with animals and inanimate objects.

This video is from the 2020 Brain Awareness Video Contest.

Created by Clodagh Towns