This is a translated copy of the original article published in Turkish.
Do you ever find yourself clenching your teeth when you see a baby you adore? Or struggling not to squeeze a cute cat or dog too hard because you do not want to hurt it? You are not alone—there is even a scientific term that explains these feelings!
A group of researchers from Yale University explain it like this:
Sometimes, when people experience an emotion very intensely, the body gives an opposite reaction to help regulate it. For example, crying from happiness, laughing when nervous, or screaming with joy. This contrasting response helps the body release some of the emotional tension.
So when we feel an urge to ‘eat up’ an irresistibly cute baby or animal, that is another example of this contradictory reaction. Scientists have even coined a term for this phenomenon: “cute aggression.”
Yale researchers Rebecca Dyer and Oriana Aragon studied how people respond to cuteness through various experiments. In most of them, participants were shown pictures of cute babies or animals and asked to describe their feelings in a survey.
One experiment had a particularly interesting method: participants were given sheets of bubble wrap (the kind that is fun to pop) while looking at pictures of animals. Some photos showed normal or funny animals, while others were extremely cute. The researchers found that participants could not resist popping the bubbles when they saw the cuter images.
Social psychology expert Dr. Rebecca Dyer explains, “Some things are just so cute, we cannot stand it.” Although some psychologists have expressed concern that this “cute aggression” might have pathological aspects, Dr. Oriana Aragon clarifies that the urge to squeeze or bite something cute is not actually worrying. In other words, this aggressive feeling does not mean we want to harm the adorable baby or animal in front of us. On the contrary, it is a coping mechanism that helps us manage and release overwhelming emotions.
The researchers also observed that these “aggressive” reactions to cute stimuli are often followed by protective reactions. So it appears there is nothing to be concerned about.
In conclusion, when we clench our teeth at unbearably cute babies or animals, we really cannot help it—but now we know it is perfectly normal and has a scientific explanation!
Wishing you plenty of cuteness! :)
References and Fruther Reading:
Dimorphous expressions of positive emotion: displays of both care and aggression in response to cute stimuli.
Psychol Sci. 2015. Oriana R. Aragón, Margaret S. Clark, Rebecca L. Dyer, John A. Bargh
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797614561044
Cuteness Inspires Aggression
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cuteness-inspires-aggression/
So cute I could eat it: The science behind ‘cute aggression’
www.independent.co.uk/news/science/so-cute-i-could-eat-it-the-science-behind-cute-aggression-9860440.html
Sevimli Şeylere Karşı Saldırganlık Eğilimi, Klinik Psikolog Barış Gürkaş
http://barisgurkas.com/sevimli-seylere-karsi-saldirganlik-egilimi/
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