Why We Feel the Urge to Squeeze Cute Toddlers Demystified

Researchers at Yale University have attempted to explain why we feel the urge to squeeze when we see something that it cute or adorable. The researchers said that whenever we see something that we find adorable, logic deems that we should treat it gently and lovingly. However in a very vast majority of cases, we display aggressive or semi aggressive behavior such as wanting to squeeze it or make noises. In order to check why we do so, the researchers conducted a study on a group of 109 participants who were shown images of animals that were cute, funny or neutral.

The participants were asked to rate the images based on their cuteness and were also asked to reveal how much the image made them lose control. The researchers found that the participants who looked at images which they found to be cute were most likely to lose control and have a desire of squeezing something or make a noise. They also popped more bubbles on a sheet of bubble wrap when watching the images instead of those which they did not find cute.

Explaining that the aggressive behavior could be due to a “high-positive” effect of overwhelmingly positive emotions, lead researcher Rebecca Dyer said, “We think it’s about high positive-affect, an approach orientation and almost a sense of lost control.”


Source-Medindia