A University of Oxford professor has explained why Punch the baby monkey has taken over social media, and it turns out your brain reacts to him before you even realise it.
Punch, the baby macaque from Ichikawa City Zoo has gone viral thanks to clips of him cuddling his IKEA plushie and trying to bond with other monkeys after his mother abandoned him.
His tiny size, expressive face, and affectionate behaviour have helped turn him into one of the internet’s most talked-about animals.
Now, Professor Morten L Kringelbach, a neuroscientist at the University of Oxford, has broken down exactly what’s happening in your brain when you watch those cute clips.
The science behind why we find Punch cute
“We discovered that when you look at babies and things that are juvenile, like small monkeys or cats or dogs, what you find is that your emotional part of your brain, the orbitofrontal cortex, starts to be active after a seventh of a second, which is way before you become conscious,” said the professor.
“Once you have that experience of something cute, you can’t help but go ‘aww’. Once you open yourself to cuteness, you also open yourself up to empathy and to compassion.”
In other words, your reaction to Punch is automatic. The emotional part of the brain lights up in a fraction of a second, way before you can rationalise why you find him adorable. However, Kringelbach added that Punch’s story taps into something even deeper.
“I think one of the reasons why we find this story of Punch so heartwarming is that it reminds us of what it is to be really human, to care for other things, and seeing that in other animals, of course, is something that really touches our heartstrings.”
Punch’s rise has already sparked global attention, with fans regularly sharing clips of him online. One hardcore fan even found themselves in trouble with local authorities after painting a mural on a historical site.
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