Have you ever felt the urge to squeeze a very cute baby or crush the breath out of an excessively adorable puppy? Do you wish you could get your hands on cute creatures in pictures and videos? Don’t worry, you're not a monster. There are good reasons why adorable puppies and baby animals trigger these strangely aggressive feelings. This is a natural urge – it is something that researchers are calling cute aggression or playful aggression. Let me explain:
It is the great adaptability of the animal that is amazing of course. However it is also adorable how very cute those snow leopard cubs are. They look fluffy and utterly huggable.
Cute babies, puppies, kittens, animal babies of all sorts trigger some pretty strong feelings in us. They make our fingers itch to just grab hold of them!
What goes through your mind when you see that image? Aww! Or even, I want to hug the life out of that!
Cute aggression is not about actually harming anything or anyone obviously. It manifests in us gritting our teeth, or clenching our hands, maybe even pinching something hard.
I heard someone say, I want to squish and kill Baby Yoda. Of course, that person did not really want to kill anything; much less an animated creature from a film. However, that very strong emotion is widely experienced; and is the reason for the proliferation of Baby Yoda memes.
One could be looking at their own little child, the image of a baby tiger/koala/panda, or viewing a puppy video and is quite overcome by the strong urge to squeeze, bite, and smother. This isn't inner aggression, but the opposite. These are just very positive feelings coming to the fore – rather like good news could make us literally sing out, or dance or jump around. Happy feelings sometimes need an exuberant outlet; physical expression.
We, humans, are programmed to have certain maternal/paternal feelings towards young ones. The very sight of cute creatures could release hormones such as oxytocin and endorphins and adrenaline. The secretion of certain hormones not only makes us want to hug and cuddle but also makes us want to do this rather forcefully and aggressively.
This process evolved to help us instinctively protect and nurture young ones. If need be, we will protect them aggressively. It is the natural tendency for caretaking that makes us want to hold and hug and guard creatures; especially the young who are typically a lot cuter than the adults. So there is a very good reason why cute aggression is triggered by cute, little, defenceless-looking creatures and not so much by regular looking adults. So if the silliness of that little bright-eyed, inquisitive-looking kitten triggers an almost violent reaction in you, you are perfectly normal.
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