Cute Aggression

To test the theory behind cute aggression, the team, led by Rebecca Dyer and Oriana Aragon, conducted two separate experiments on different sets of volunteers. Firstly, they wanted to find out whether seeing something cute really does bring out an aggressive side to people.

One hundred and nine research subjects were shown images of things which were cute, funny or neutral – not cute or funny. Then they were asked to rate the images according to sayings or expressions such as, ‘I just can’t handle it’, or whether they felt like squeezing something or even just saying ‘Gr’ out loud.

In a second experiment, ninety subjects were given a piece of bubble wrap to hold and, once again, shown a mixture of cute, funny and neutral pictures. They were asked to pop as many bubbles as they wanted while looking at the pictures.

What surprised the researchers most was that the people who were looking at the cuter pictures actually popped more bubbles than the ones who were looking at the funny or neutral pictures. Pictures of cute little bunnies and kittens made them react more strongly. Those looking at the cute slideshow popped an average of 120 bubbles, while it was only 100 for the funny pictures and 80 for the neutral.

Do You Feel More Aggressive In The Presence Of Cuteness?

While this study is based on a tiny number of subjects, only 109 in the first experiment and 90 in the second, many people will identify with that feeling of wanting to squish something that they find cute. And many of us will vividly remember standing, terrified, in front of an aunt or grandparent who declares that they want to ‘eat us’! But why does this phenomenon occur?

In psychology there are many different explanations:

• One theory is that there may be an overspill of emotions. In a similar way, some people have experienced crying when they are so overcome with joy that the feeling becomes unbearable and tears start to flow. The over-protective feelings brought on by looking at something cute might spill over into aggression.

• Another idea is that when we something like a helpless baby, we immediately feel protective over it. So both emotions are felt at the same time: love and a feeling of aggressive protection.

• An interesting idea is that an adult can sometime show a feeling of false aggression to a cute child to show him who is boss. A playful pinch on the cheek can show dominance and make sure that the message is: ‘Yes, you are cute, I’m in charge’.

Complex Reactions

The human mind is a complex entity. What is more, no two people can be absolutely guaranteed to react the same way to the same stimulus. So, to study it, a range of different assumptions must be made. It could be possible that where the researchers see ‘aggression’ the subjects are only showing an extreme form of positive reaction which only looks like a bad vibe. On the surface, although this research might not seem so important, it could have some very important implications when scientists want to discover why some mothers do not react positively to their babies and may even suffer from post-natal depression.