Parent Backed for Letting Son Wear Blue, a Color Autistic Daughter HatesĪ 2015 study by the British charity Banardo's found that on average, people across the world wear a piece of clothing only seven times before throwing it out.

Amazon Removes 'Daddy's Little Slut' Children's T-shirt After Backlash.

T-Shirt Company Stocks 'Hitler Did Nothing Wrong' Shirt.

The average person keeps clothing for half as long as they did 15 years ago, according to sustainability magazine Anthropocene. Amid the ascent of cheap, fast fashion and the decline of clothing repair skills, most items cycle out of closets at a rapid pace. 'It's got at least another 100k miles in it,' ventured a fourth comment.Īs much as it delighted the internet, the long-loved shirt was an anomaly, as a range of studies have shown that many more clothes are hardly worn at all. ' what you mean, it's in perfect condition,' argued another commenter.Īnother jokester said, 'Mind your business.This is between him and the raccoons he sneaks out at night to fight.' 'Why would anybody throw away a shirt they survived a bear attack in?' asked a commenter with nearly 7,000 votes. Mark Makela / Stringer/Getty Images North America An image of a man’s tattered T-shirt became the respite the internet needed today. Hopkin: For Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Karen Hopkin.Here, a rack of T-shirts in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, in November 2020. Hopkin: So dogs turn on the waterworks and their owners roll over. Kikusui: …suggesting that teary eyes of dogs can facilitate the human caregiving behavior. Hopkin: The volunteers were more likely to want to cuddle and care for the mutts with big, wet puppy-dog eyes… And the other was teary dog face in which we added artificial tears. But to what end? In other words, is there some benefit to this lachrymose behavior? To find out, Kikusui and his colleagues showed volunteers a couple of hound head shots. Kikusui: So we applied oxytocin to the dogs’ eyes. And oxytocin receptors have been found to be abundant in the glands that secrete tears in mice. They had shown previously that oxytocin is boosted when dogs interact with their owners. Hopkin: The researchers suspected that the tearful reaction was stimulated by oxytocin…a hormone associated with social bonding. Kikusui: There was no increase in tears when the dogs were separated from the owner and reunited with the dogs’ caretaker in a dog care center. Hopkin: But it only worked with the dog’s owner. And found that the reunion with the owner stimulate tear secretion. Kikusui: When the owner came back, we measure tear volume again. Hopkin: Then the owner would high-tail it off for five or six hours. Kikusui: In the test, we initially measure the baseline tear volumes when dogs were together with the owner in their house. That potential connection between unbearable cuteness and unshed tears sent Kikusui scurrying away from his poodle and back to the lab. Hopkin: At some point Kikusui, who’s a professor of veterinary medicine at Azabu University in Japan, realized that his adorable mama dog had tears in her eyes. Takefumi Kikusui: When she was nursing her puppies, her face becomes so cute.

Takefumi Kikusui became interested in doggies’ damp and adoring gazes while watching his pet poodle interact with her pups. The findings appear in the journal Current Biology. I’m Karen Hopkin.Īfter an exhausting day at the office, it’s hard not to smile when you’re greeted by a delirious display of uncontrolled canine joy.īut it’s not just the happy yapping and wriggling tail wagging that tug at our heartstrings.īecause a new study shows that dogs’ eyes fill with tears when reunited with their people…an effect that evokes our nurturing instincts.

Karen Hopkin: This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science.

Reditr fullscreen