Why Do You Want To Squeeze Cute Things

Understanding the Phenomenon of “Cute Aggression”

Watching a kitten fumbling around, you might feel as if you’ve encountered the most adorable thing in your life. You may want to pet its soft fur and kiss its tiny head. However, you may also feel the conflicting urge to squeeze or smush the kitten, maybe even stuff it in your mouth. This urge, which psychologists call “cute aggression,” is surprisingly common, and estimated to affect about half of all adults.

What is Cuteness?

In 1943, a scientist created a baby schema that identified key features associated with cuteness, like plump cheeks, large eyes, and short limbs. These characteristics, associated with many young animals, were placed in opposition with those perceived as less cute. Decades of study have since indicated that this baby schema reliably tracks with how people perceive cuteness. When study participants see images containing more features that the baby schema pinpoints as cute, they tend to look at them longer and more often. The photos appear to stimulate brain regions associated with emotion and reward.

The Influence of Cuteness on Behavior

Cuteness is also thought to influence behavior. In a 2009 study, participants performed better at the game Operation—which demands precise, careful movements—when shown cute images beforehand. The results of another study indicated that people use recycling bins more when they have cute images on them. The fact that cuteness hijacks our emotions is certainly not lost on authorities and advertisers.

Why Does Cuteness Have This Hold on Us?

It’s nearly impossible to know for sure, but one theory is that cute things simply make us want to nurture them. Because human babies are relatively helpless on their own, it’s hypothesized that evolution favored infants who were perceived as cute and inspired more care and interaction. Being acutely sensitive to cuteness, we’re tuned into similar features in other species.

The Impact of Domestication on Cuteness

As we domesticated animals, their appearances tended to change too. Some scientists have noted a phenomenon called “domestication syndrome,” where certain animals appear to have gradually adopted more juvenile features as they became more docile. One theory is that these physical changes are regulated by an embryonic structure called the neural crest. It helps determine how some of a developing embryo’s cells differentiate and where they go.

The Link Between Cuteness and Nurturing

If cuteness is related to nurturing and decreased aggression, why would anyone ever want to squeeze or bite cute things? Well, cute aggression is importantly not linked to the actual intention to do harm. Instead, it seems to result from emotional overload. Some scientists think that cute things elicit such positive emotions from certain people that the experience becomes overwhelming. They hypothesize that slightly aggressive, discordant thoughts are the brain’s way of putting the brakes on and regulating those intense feelings—not getting you to actually eat a kitten.

The Power of Cuteness

Cuteness can come off as a frivolous, innocent quality, but it wields immense, consequential power. Not to be aggressive, but cuteness kind of runs the world.