Rat or Frog

The National Library of Medicine, in their article Animal Analogies in First Impressions of Faces, goes into the history of people’s faces resembling animals. They refer to reverse anthropomorphism, which highlights facial stereotypes. Essentially, the structure of your face resembles different animals compared to others. If your face has a warmer, friendlier vibe, you may be compared to a Labrador, but if your face seemed more cold or shrewd, you will be compared to a Lion. The NLM talks about how the comparison of animals to humans “has recently been a focus of psychological research,” more specifically connecting it to social cognition. Aside from the science aspect, they also dove into the history behind this. The Physiognomica which is credited to Aristotle, was written in Ancient Greece, and is said to include “colorful assumptions about people based on their resemblance to animals.” Despite the history, and developing science around this topic, it has become subject to social media. Describing people as animals has become a trend, however it seems to be limited to frogs and rats. It is mainly seen on TikTok and is called the Rat or Frog theory. This theory puts the entire human population into two categories. You either look like a rat or frog. Although there isn’t any scientific evidence like some may wish, this became a large topic of interest on the internet. Videos varied from random interviews about being a rat or frog, to telling their friends they look like a rat, no context given. They also used this as an outlet to compare celebrities; the trend then evolved into comparing your level of prettiness. Celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were prime examples of frog pretty, while Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Swift were considered rat pretty. It overall is an odd concept, yet somehow seemed to work with just about anybody.