Why do you want to squeeze cute things? - Joshua Paul Dale
Watching a kitten fumbling around,
it might feel as if you’ve never
encountered anything
so devastatingly adorable
in your mortal life.
You may want to pet its soft fur
and kiss its tiny head.
But you may also feel the conflicting
urge to squeeze
or smush the kitten,
maybe even stuff it in your mouth.
However, you don’t.
And you might be appalled by yourself.
But this urge, which psychologists
call “cute aggression,”
is a surprisingly common one estimated
to affect about half of all adults.
To better understand this
peculiar phenomenon,
let's start with what cuteness is.
In 1943, one 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.
And the photos appear
to stimulate brain regions
associated with emotion and reward.
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.
And the fact that cuteness hijacks
our emotions
is certainly not lost
on authorities and advertisers.
But 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.
And, being acutely sensitive to cuteness,
we're tuned into similar features
in other species.
In fact, 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.
Delaying or inhibiting the arrival of
these cells in certain areas of the body
can result in an underdevelopment
of the pituitary and adrenal glands,
which govern fear and aggression.
It can also lead
to physical characteristics
like floppier ears, shorter snouts,
and smaller jaws.
This is one idea of how selecting
for behavioral characteristics
like friendliness, may also select
for more juvenile, cuter physical traits.
Basically, as humans bred
and domesticated docile dogs,
we seem to have made some breeds
look more like babies.
Some scientists theorize that we may
have even domesticated ourselves.
The thinking here is that
as ancient humans
formed larger, more cooperative groups,
they selected for friendlier individuals.
This may have then led to some
of the physical characteristics
that distinguish us from our closest
evolutionary cousins,
like smaller, rounder skulls
and subtler brow ridges.
But 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.
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.
