communication tool

People and dogs go together like spaghetti noodles and pasta sauce. The four-legged face lickers have been man's best friend since well before the wheel was invented. Dogs evolved from the grey wolf, likely after realizing that scavenging food from nearby camps was easier than going out and chasing down smaller prey. This method took way less energy exertion for the dogs, and since humans could make fires by then, sticking nearby was just smart planning.

If you've ever seen a wolf in real life, though, you know they're pretty intimidating. They don't look much like the dogs we've all come to love at all. In fact, they look like if you make the wrong move they'll attack and likely eat you, so it's not surprising that the wolves who decided to adopt humans needed a way to make people feel safe and empathetic to their plight. Thus, their proximity to humans resulted in the evolution of expressive eyebrow muscles.

The discovery that dogs developed the use of their eyebrows in order to essentially manipulate humans into feeling positively towards them is blowing people's minds. This scientific hypothesis recently went viral after a woman shared a video of her staring blankly ahead with superimposed text that reads, "I just learned that dogs evolved an eyebrow muscle to bond with humans."

"So my dog constantly looks concerned on purpose??" someone says.

"The way my dog be doing the side eye + eyebrow combo at me makes me think he wants to judge me instead of bonding," another person writes.

Many people think dogs developing eyebrows to mimic human expression is adorable while others are skeptical, insisting that the trait came from selective breeding or to "trick other animals into thinking they were asleep." Although it's unclear how eyebrows would deceive other animals into believing dogs were sleeping when closing their eyes, this use would likely be more effective. Enter the Internet's favorite debunker, Hank Green, who goes on to confirm that science does in fact believe that dogs developed eyebrow muscles for connection with humans.

Curious pup tilts head in adorable confusion.Photo credit: Canva

"June 2019 'Evolution of Facial Anatomy in Dogs' show that the domestication transformed the facial muscle anatomy of dogs specifically for facial communication with humans. A muscle responsible for raising the inner eyebrow intensely is uniformly present in dogs but not in wolves," Green reads from the study. "This resembles an expression humans produce when sad, so its production in dogs may trigger a nurturing response."

In the abstract of the study, it says the scientists hypothesize "that dogs with expressive eyebrows had a selection advantage and that “puppy dog eyes” are the result of selection based on humans’ preferences." According to the study, dogs rely heavily on eye contact to communicate with humans and are better at the tools humans use to communicate more than other domesticated animals, including chimpanzees. This is the reason dogs will look to where you're pointing if you're making eye contact with them or use their name so they're aware you're communicating with them.

"Recent research suggests that eye contact between humans and dogs is crucial for dog−human social interaction. Dogs, but not wolves, establish eye contact with humans when they cannot solve a problem on their own," the study reads. "Eye contact also helps dogs to know when communication is relevant and directed at them, as dogs tend to ignore human pointing gestures when the human’s eyes are not visible."

Eye contact between dogs and humans known as "mutual gaze" creates an oxytocin loop between the two species, meaning both human and dog are getting the love chemical flooded into their brains when they look at each other. This is the same chemical that releases between humans and their infants. However, this oxytocin feedback loop does not happen with wolves and humans, leaving researchers to hypothesize about how this occurred.

Playful husky enjoying a blissful moment!Photo credit: Canva

"Selection processes during domestication must have played an important role whereby dogs hijacked the human caregiving response. The most likely evolutionary scenario is that dogs’ ancestor must have, to some extent, expressed characteristics that elicited a caregiving response from humans. Humans then consciously or unconsciously favored and therefore selected for those characteristics, leading to the analogous adaptations we see in dogs today," the researchers suggest.

So yes, your dog did raise her eyebrow at you when you did that weird thing. Are they judging you? Probably not. They're likely just trying to decipher if the weird thing you did was some new communication tool they need to be aware of. At any rate, you can now confidently thank those wolves that somehow got humans to feel sorry for them thousands of years ago for your dog's sad puppy dog eyes when you refuse to share your sub sandwich.

Thoughtful puppy with soulful eyes resting on the floor.Photo credit: Canva

The question seems to be who actually did the domesticating, ancient humans or ancient grey wolves? Probably a little bit of both since dogs sure do love their humans and we love them right back.