Cute-aggression: aggression towards pretty things

Have you ever felt like pinching an adorable baby’s cheeks? Do you usually clench your fists with excitement when you see a puppy on the street? Or have you even bitten your partner as a sign of love? All these types of expressions are called cute-aggression and they respond to a psychological phenomenon that is, to say the least, curious.

These “aggressive” behaviors They occur at the sight of a person, animal or even object that we would describe as cute, adorable or tender.. The emotion that contemplating it produces in us leads us, unintentionally, to issue this type of responses that seem unreasonable and contradictory. However, it is something very common and has an explanation that we show you below.

Cute-aggression: what is it?

The term cute-aggression It could be defined as aggressiveness towards pretty, tender or adorable things. It is characterized by compulsive and superficially aggressive behavior that arises when seeing something that awakens these tender feelings in us.

Thus, we can make responses such as clenching our teeth or fists, pinching or biting the person, hugging them or squeezing them very hard, etc., all without any intention of causing harm.

This phenomenon was first explored by Rebecca Dyer and Oriana Aragón, researchers in the psychology department at Yale University. They proposed the term playful aggression (playful aggression) to designate this type of reactions and they found that it is a dimorphic expression.

Dimorphic expressions and their regulatory function

Dimorphic expressions are emotional reactions that are contradictory in relation to the current emotional state. For example, when we laugh out of nervousness or cry out of joy. Initially, crying is associated with an opposite emotion: sadness; However, it can also appear in the face of happiness to act as a compensatory and regulatory mechanism.

It has been found that These types of reactions appear when the emotion is overflowing and overwhelming. for its intensity. In that case, another emotion appears to balance what is being felt. Thus, when faced with a sudden and uncontrollable feeling of happiness, crying helps us regulate ourselves. And the same thing happens in the phenomenon of cute-aggression.

In this case, the tender or adorable stimulus causes such emotional activation that a contrary emotional expression (aggression) emerges to restore balance. This mechanism allows you to recover more quickly. In fact, it has been found that positive emotion declines after five minutes thanks to the regulatory effect of the aggressive response.

It is worth mentioning that during these dimorphic displays, both positive and negative emotional expressions occur simultaneously in a disorganized manner. That is, the person can cry while smiling, or smile while clenching their fists. It is based on the context that we can understand what emotion these apparently contradictory manifestations really respond to.

Factors involved in the cute-aggression experience

Among their findings, the researchers found that, although anyone can experience cute-aggression, there are some more prone than others. So, There are those who tend to present dimorphic emotions more frequently and through a variety of situations.; and it is these who are most susceptible to feeling that uncontrollable desire to crush or pinch at an adorable sight.

On the other hand, it seems that The stimuli that we find most adorable are those that present features typical of the so-called “baby schema.”. This was defined by the ethnologist Konrad Lorenz and groups a set of childhood physical characteristics that motivate caring behavior in other individuals. Thus, certain features, such as large and wide eyes, a rounded face, a high forehead or small size awaken tenderness and an instinct for care in us.

This seems to come from an animal instinct that fulfills the evolutionary function of ensuring the survival of offspring. And babies need to be cared for and protected; Thus, presenting these traits considered adorable would motivate protective behaviors towards them in adults.

A natural and harmless phenomenon

Finally, it is worth mentioning that Aggression towards beautiful things is not at all dangerous. Our desire to pinch a baby, bite a loved one, or squeeze our pet tightly does not go beyond these mildly aggressive expressions; Sometimes it even remains only an impulse or intention that is never consummated.

However, now you know that these contradictory reactions are the way your brain has found to deal with so much sudden and unexpected tenderness.

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