Cuteness Aggression

[AiA in Atlanta]

I knew there was a reason I wanted to rip my cat's head off and poke my dog with a fork.



Cuteness makes people aggressive, scientists say

Have you ever seen something so adorable that you just want to squeeze it? Well, scientists are saying that what might actually be occurring is form of pent up aggression.


During a study, 90 male and female volunteers were given bubble wrap and asked to watch three different slideshows. One was full of adorable animals, the other somewhat half-full of adorableness, and the third mostly pictures of old dogs with neutral expressions (Science, eh?).

… the researchers really wanted to know if people would respond to cute animals with an outward display of aggression, popping more bubbles, compared with people looking at neutral or funny animals.

That’s exactly what happened. The people watching a cute slideshow popped 120 bubbles, on average, compared with 80 for the funny slideshow and just a hair over 100 for the neutral one.

Dyer said she and her colleagues aren’t yet sure why cuteness seems to trigger expressions of aggression, even relatively harmless ones. It’s possible that seeing a wide-eyed baby or roly-poly pup triggers our drive to care for that creature, Dyer said. But since the animal is just a picture, and since even in real life we might not be able to care for the creature as much as we want, this urge may be frustrated, she said. That frustration could lead to aggression.

[AnimalMother]

That's possible .... another possibility might be that people pop bubbles when they are bored, and cute stuff, while pleasant, is less interesting than other stuff.

[boxy]

Since when is bursting bubblewrap a sign of aggression?

[Neferti]

Since when is bursting bubblewrap a sign of aggression?

Since the Gay Movement?

[boxy]

I'd like to know why we (generally) find predators attractive, actually. I mean, sure, the young of most species are cute... but there is something about those front facing eyes in adults...

The only counterpoint I can think of is fish (and they're not all that dangerous to us, as a terrestrial species).

[AiA in Atlanta]

I'd like to know why we (generally) find predators attractive

it's the eyes.

[AnimalMother]

The eyes are an interesting point.

The eyes of grazing mammals tend to be placed towards either side of their heads, so they can see all around them. This alerts them to danger. Examples are cows, deer and rabbits.

The eyes of predatory mammals tend to face forward, so they get a very accurate, stereoscopic view of prey. This allows them to single out a target, judge its distance accurately, and attack. Examples are tigers, wolves, housecats - and humans.

Perhaps that's why we feel closer to predators. They're more like us.