When my youngest sister was a baby, I recall telling my mom through gritted teeth: “Ugh, she’s so cute, I can’t stand it. I just want to squeeze her!” Years later, I still feel this overwhelming pull ...

Thomas Mulligan investigates the psychological phenomenon of cute aggression and why adorable subjects can sometimes provoke intense, overwhelming reactions in the human brain.

You’ve probably heard the term “cute aggression” thrown around over the years. It describes the odd but seemingly common compulsion to smoosh, bite, or pinch—but not hurt—adorable things like babies ...

See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Have you ever felt so overwhelmed by kitten's cuteness that you've been ...

Sometimes merely acknowledging the cuteness of a duckling, a cub, or even a human child isn’t good enough. Sometimes cuteness is so arresting that the only logical reaction is an intense urge to ...

Katherine Stavropoulos, a psychologist from the University of California, Riverside who published a study about the phenomenon, said that cute aggression can be baffling and embarrassing to those who ...

The holiday season is all about cute. You've got those ads with adorable children and those movies about baby animals with big eyes. But when people encounter too much cuteness, the result can be ...

Until now, research exploring how and why cute aggression occurs has been the domain of behavioral psychology. But recently, a licensed clinical psychologist with a background in neuroscience has ...

Cute kittens, chubby baby cheeks and elderly people eating ice cream — these things elicit a primal response from us. Sighs of "Awww!" and gushes of gooey compliments proceed after coming in contact ...

Do you have a face so cute that people want to pinch your cheeks? Does the sight of a baby piglet snuggling up to a newborn baby make you want to kick down a door and run away screaming? Have you ever ...