daannii1d ago

I think it's weird that we have pink rings around our mouth holes and I think it's weird we never talk about how weird that is.

https://lemmy.world/post/44965646

I think it's weird that we have pink rings around our mouth holes and I think it's weird we never talk about how weird that is. - Lemmy.World

Pretty sure we are the only animals with pink rings around our mouth. It’s flipping weird. It probably helps with verbal language understanding as humans often use mouth movements to interpret words (see McGurk effect). But I still think it’s weird. Big pink rings.

Show threadprotist1d ago
Evolutionarily, it probably helps with both speech and nonverbal language, i.e. facial expressions
Show threaddaannii1d ago
Yeah that’s my guess. Since we use language so much and are social. It would help to make facial cues like the mouth shape, more visible.
Show threadaMockTie

My understanding is that fucus on the mouth in social interactions is also influenced by culture. That’s why some cultures generally represented a happy face with the emoticon :) while others used _

The former is focused on the mouth and the eyes lack meaningful expression, while the latter is the opposite.

Mar 31 at 9:28amWeb