Why do you want to squeeze cute things?--Joshua Paul Dale

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Watching a kitten fumbling around, it might feel as if you’ve never encountered anything so devastatingly adorable in your mortal life. You may want to pet its soft fur and kiss its tiny head. But you may also feel the conflicting urge to squeeze or smush the kitten, maybe even stuff it in your mouth. However, you don’t. And you might be appalled by yourself. But this urge, which psychologists call “cute aggression,” is a surprisingly common one estimated to affect about half of all adults.

fumbling??

encounter??

devastatingly?adv. 譏諷地；破壞性地

so?devastatingly?adorable?太可愛了?

to an extremely impressive degree.

"no artist has more devastatingly exposed the folly of his fellow men"

mortal

pet?v. 撫摸

fur?(某些動物的）軟毛，柔毛

urge?

squeeze

smush

stuff?v. 塞進(jìn)?stuff?it in your?mouth 塞進(jìn)嘴里

appall?vt. 使膽寒；使驚駭

psychologists

cute aggression

surprisingly?

estimate

v. 估計；判斷，評價

n. 估計，估價；估價單；看法，判斷

To better understand this peculiar phenomenon, let's start with what cuteness is. In 1943, one scientist created a baby schema that identified key features associated with cuteness, like plump cheeks, large eyes, and short limbs. These characteristics, associated with many young animals, were placed in opposition with those perceived as less cute.

peculiar?

schema

identify?v. 鑒定；辨認(rèn)

feature

plump?cheeks?豐滿的臉頰

limbs?四肢

opposition

perceive

Decades of study have since indicated that this baby schema reliably tracks with how people perceive cuteness. When study participants see images containing more features that the baby schema pinpoints as cute, they tend to look at them longer and more often. And the photos appear to stimulate brain regions associated with emotion and reward.

decade?

indicate

track

participant

pinpoint

stimulate

region

emotion

reward

Cuteness is also thought to influence behavior. In a 2009 study, participants performed better at the game Operation— which demands precise, careful movements— when shown cute images beforehand. The results of another study indicated that people use recycling bins more when they have cute images on them. And the fact that cuteness hijacks our emotions is certainly not lost on authorities and advertisers.

influence

operation

demand

precise?adj. 精確的，準(zhǔn)確的；恰好的，確切的；（人）嚴(yán)格的，一絲不茍的?

movement

beforehand

recycling?bin

hijack

v. 搶劫，劫持；強(qiáng)行控制，操縱

n. 劫持事件（或行為）

authority

advertiser

But why does cuteness have this hold on us? It's nearly impossible to know for sure, but one theory is that cute things simply make us want to nurture them. Because human babies are relatively helpless on their own, it’s hypothesized that evolution favored infants who were perceived as cute and inspired more care and interaction.

nurture?

hypothesize?假設(shè)，假定

evolution

infant

And, being acutely sensitive to cuteness, we're tuned into similar features in other species. In fact, as we domesticated animals, their appearances tended to change too. Some scientists have noted a phenomenon called “domestication syndrome,” where certain animals appear to have gradually adopted more juvenile features as they became more docile.

sensitive

domesticated

appearance

domestication syndrome?馴化綜合癥

juvenile

docile?馴服的，容易控制的，溫順的

One theory is that these physical changes are regulated by an embryonic structure called the neural crest. It helps determine how some of a developing embryo’s cells differentiate and where they go. Delaying or inhibiting the arrival of these cells in certain areas of the body can result in an underdevelopment of the pituitary and adrenal glands, which govern fear and aggression. It can also lead to physical characteristics like floppier ears, shorter snouts, and smaller jaws. This is one idea of how selecting for behavioral characteristics like friendliness, may also select for more juvenile, cuter physical traits. Basically, as humans bred and domesticated docile dogs, we seem to have made some breeds look more like babies.

embryonic

the?neural?crest?神經(jīng)嵴

embryo?胚，胚胎

differentiate

delaying

inhibiting

underdevelopment?

pituitary

adrenal?

gland

govern?

aggression

floppier

snout

jaw

trait

bred?

breed

Some scientists theorize that we may have even domesticated ourselves. The thinking here is that as ancient humans formed larger, more cooperative groups, they selected for friendlier individuals. This may have then led to some of the physical characteristics that distinguish us from our closest evolutionary cousins, like smaller, rounder skulls and subtler brow ridges.

theorize

cooperative?合作的，協(xié)作的；樂于配合的

closest evolutionary?cousin

rounde skull

subte?不易察覺的，微妙的；敏銳的，有洞察力的；靈活的，巧妙的；含蓄的，隱晦的

ridge?山脊，山脈；屋脊；隆起部分，脊?fàn)钔黄?/p>

But if cuteness is related to nurturing and decreased aggression, why would anyone ever want to squeeze or bite cute things? Well, cute aggression is importantly not linked to the actual intention to do harm. Instead, it seems to result from emotional overload. Some scientists think that cute things elicit such positive emotions from certain people that the experience becomes overwhelming. They hypothesize that slightly aggressive, discordant thoughts are the brain’s way of putting the brakes on and regulating those intense feelings— not getting you to actually eat a kitten.

elicit

overwhelming

discordant?

intense

brake

Cuteness can come off as a frivolous, innocent quality, but it wields immense, consequential power. Not to be aggressive, but cuteness kind of runs the world.

frivolous?愚蠢輕浮的，不嚴(yán)肅的；無聊的，不重要的

innocent?

wield

immense

consequential

aggressive