Have You Ever Seen a Baby So Cute You Want to Crush or Bite It?

It’s called ‘cute aggression’ and it could be key to survival.

When my babies were brand new and teeny tiny, I couldn’t stop smelling the tops of their heads. That sweet downy hair and impossibly soft skin made my heart swoon; it was all I could do not to pinch their chubby pink cheeks or nibble their stupidly cute toes. The sensation of wanting to squeeze my babies in the tightest hug was sometimes overwhelming.

But I wasn’t alone; family and friends would react similarly to the cuteness overload when they met my babies. Lots of ‘oo’s and ah’s’ and plenty of high pitched omg you’re so cute I could just EAT you! There was nothing particularly unique about my babies (sorry, kids), only the sheer fact that they were new and small and pink and sweet. And cute.

It got me thinking. Why would adults react to an adorable baby with actions that might harm them? Because if you bite or give a crushing hug or pinch those cheeks, you’ll likely hurt the baby, and yet the urge to do these things is universally felt by adults the world over. It’s a bizarre feeling to both find something charmingly sweet and also want to crush it, albeit minus the urge to cause harm. And yet, this phenomenon is well documented.

I am not the first person to wonder about this. A team of researchers at Yale University wanted to know the same thing. In 2015, they published a study that identified aggressive behaviors in…