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 people when exposed to cute stimuli. They called the resulting behaviors “cute aggression,” and the science behind it is wicked cool.

Cute aggression is when a person becomes overwhelmed by something so cute they literally cannot take it. Truly. The brain then scrambles emotions as a way to redirect the cuteness overload.

“Extremely positive experiences, and positive appraisals thereof, produce intense positive emotions that often generate both positive expressions (e.g., smiles) and expressions normatively reserved for negative emotions (e.g., tears),” the study reads.

Have you ever placed your hand under running water and felt momentarily confused by the sensation? The water is either too hot or too cold, but whatever is happening, the feeling is overwhelming, and you pull your hand away. This unsettling sensation is how I imagine the cute aggression theory to work in the brain. Otherwise, why would a rational…