If you’ve ever felt the urge to squeeze or do something aggressive when you see a cute puppy or baby, you have “cuteness rage.”
According to a Scientific American article, two Yale University psychologists, Rebecca Dyer and Oriana Aragon, found that cuteness inspires aggression. They researched cuteness aggression by showing people funny, normal and cute images of animals, then seeing how hard and if they popped the bubble wrap they were holding.
Dyer and Aragon told the people to pop as many and as few bubbles as they wished during the presentation. They found that people watching the cute slideshow popped more bubbles than the ones watching the funny or normal pictures.
Dyer and Aragon said cuteness aggression does not mean that people actually want to harm cute animals. The aggressive response could possibly be protective, or it could be your brain’s way of dealing with feeling extremely giddy or happy.
So, if you feel like squeezing cute baby’s cheeks or squeezing a baby animal hard, don’t worry – it’s normal. If you get aggressive around cute things, you know the following five signs all too well.
1. You say aggressive or mildly violent things when you see a cute animal or baby
If you see a cute animal or baby in the distance, you will stop what you’re doing, stare at them and blurt out violent things. Such as: “Oh my gosh that puppy is so cute it makes me want to stab myself, I just can’t handle it,” or “That baby is so adorable it actually hurts me.” It may sound bad, but it’s harmless.
2. You have hit or slapped someone when you saw something cute
Your friends always get hit or slapped gently when you see something cute. You will hit them or slap their arm multiple times while screeching about how cute a puppy is and ask if they see it too.
3. You just want to squeeze anything cute
It’s not like you want to hurt it or anything, you just want to squeeze it hard in your arms because you can’t handle how cute it is.
4. You’ve told people you want to “eat” their pet or baby
You’ll gasp and tell someone “Oh I could just eat them up. Look at their little face I could just eat it!” They look a little concerned but you assure them that you won’t actually do it.
5. You quietly scream or yell seeing cute animals or babies on social media
Your friends constantly ask you if you’re okay because you’ll be scrolling through Facebook and quietly scream at someone’s cute puppy or baby. You just can’t help yourself.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone when it comes to wanting to smother cute things with your love and affection. Cute things bring us so much joy in life, yours is just expressed differently. Keep on loving cute animals and babies and assuring people that you won’t actually hurt them or yourself.
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