It seems like many mammals even those that would be considered exotic or dangerous seem to enjoy being petted by humans under the right circumstances. Why did so many mammals evolve to enjoy this?
In: Biology
Have you ever been petted? It’s nice. I see why other mammals enjoy it.
Most mammals are social creatures and rely on being near others for warmth and safety. When they either don’t learn to be afraid of humans OR are domesticated and live with humans, humans fulfill this biological desire of being close to another warm blooded creature.
My partner pets my head when we lay in bed at night and it’s my absolutely favorite thing. It makes me feel so loved.
Fun fact! Dogs are trained to enjoy being pet on their backs. It gives them anxiety as puppies and they much prefer chest scratches.
Nerve endings. It just feels good to brush up against stuff and have stuff brush up against you. I’d imagine, from an evolutionary perspective, it’s useful to clear off potential dirt, mold spores, bugs, eggs, mites, ticks, etc.
Mammals groom each other with their tongues and paws as a bonding and stress relief. It’s also important to their hygiene. Petting is basically the same motion with the hand and activates nerves in the skin and follicles that are activated by grooming.
Mammals get an early-life experience that no other animal does: lying on/next to Mom, nursing. It’s warm, it’s safe, we get fed. Not surprising that would condition us to be fond of close gentle contact.
We are from the same evolutionary node. We have very similar nerve endings / pressure receptors. Push just hard enough, and it releases endorphins – both in us, and in other mammals. Same with scratching. They just feel it the same way we do. It’s comfortable.
Then you could optionally stack up oxytocin from the bonding/social element and other factors that I am not educated enough to know about.
Humans have a much better fine motor control than a lot of animals, and can scratch specific spots on them that might be hard to reach or otherwise hard to accurately target.
My personal take on why domesticated animals like it is that it was selected by evolution as a behavior that allowed us to check them for parasites. Just like you see animals in the wild letting other animals clean them by eating parasites off of them.
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