Our article on "why are cats so cute" is one of our top pages here at catswhereitsat.com, but in some people all that cuteness can trigger feelings of wanting to crush or bite the cute thing. It's called cuteness aggression and of course something as cute as a kitty can trigger it, so lets find out more about what causes cute aggression!
What is cute aggression?
To recap the reasons why cats are so cute, it's due to their baby-like characteristics, like large eyes, soft bodies and big heads compared to their body size. They also have the cutest little kitty chirp and love to play, which all add up to make us feel that cats are adorable.
Cute aggression comes in when a human responds to all that cuteness with feelings of wanting to crush, squeeze or even punch whatever is that darn cute, with no real intention of actually causing any harm to the cutie! According to npr, these feelings seem to be an involuntary response to what can be an overwhelming positive emotion.
Going back to the why are cats so cute article, we found that all that kitty cuteness causes our brains to want to take care of the little cutie, and also makes us feel good. The npr article cites a study by Katherine Stavropoulos at the University of California, Riverside that looked at the brain activity of people when looking at cute images. They found that everyone had activity in their brain associated with emotion, but with more cute aggression came more activity in the brain's reward area.
This suggests that when confronted with overwhelming cuteness like you might see in an adorable kitten, the brain shoots in those more "negative" thoughts of crushing or biting in order to help balance out the "positive" ones that could become overpowering. Litter-robot.com says it's ok to have cuteness aggression and that it serves an important purpose. They remind us that cute babies, adorable kittens and puppies need our help to survive, so we can't bask in the cuteness for too long! They say the aggressive reaction to cuteness was also accompanied by a caretaking urge toward the cute thing, so instead of getting overwhelmed by cuteness, cuteness aggression helps us break out of that cuteness high, so that we can take good care of the baby, kitten, puppy or other cutie.
The Litter-Robot.com article goes on to say that you shouldn't feel odd if you feel cute aggression. They point out that it "takes a village" to take care of babies and so cuteness agression may have developed as a way to keep us invested in the well being of the cute creatures all around us!
So, if you are one who gets those aggressive feelings toward cuteness, remember, you are not alone, and in fact it might mean you are a better caretaker!
Cover photo by Alberto Bigoni on Unsplash
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