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Cute Aggression and Conflicting Reactions

  • Nicolas Kusuma
  • May 5
  • 2 min read

Why do we have the urge to squish cute objects?

Your favourite plushie, or maybe your chubby, furry pet; it’s a universal urge to cuddle with something you find remotely cute, but take a moment to think—why exactly do we want to squish it? Isn’t it rather counterintuitive to squeeze something you find precious? In this article, I’ll explore our mind’s reaction to intensive emotions, both positive and negative.


To start off the reason we recognize certain traits as cute, and consequently feel that familiar squishing urge, is in fact an evolutionary response. The theory is that humans find babies cute, a mechanism that evokes certain emotions that make us want to care for the baby, thus increasing the species’ survival rate. And as the logic goes, the more intense the emotions, the chances of survival, right? But your mind will try to tone down these emotions and feelings, which is why we experience ‘cute aggression’ as the body attempts to mitigate these feelings, or to combat the ‘cuteness overload’ (Knight, 2024).


This reaction acts as the negative feedback mechanism (a term referring to the body’s attempts to bring back a certain condition within, or close to usual parameters—in other words, an opposing force to a sudden change) that is triggered when intense emotions such as awkwardness or crazed fits of laughter overwhelm our brains. These reactions are called ‘dimorphous expressions’, a seemingly inappropriate reaction that occurs in response to your current state of emotions (Aragón, Clark, Dyer, Bargh, 2015). We have long been aware of dimorphous expressions, hence why we have phrases such as “So happy I could cry” or alternatively, “Tears of Joy”. A “Sheepish smile” is also a term coined to depict an awkward smile. This mechanism prevents us from becoming overwhelmed due to negative feelings such as anxiety, sadness or humiliation, and likewise feelings of happiness such as being smitten with a cute object. In awkward or desperate situations, dimorphous expressions may be triggered, such as laughing.


In conclusion, though these dimorphous expressions may feel natural and seem to have no purpose, they were in fact a trait brought about in humans to regulate intense emotions that may affect our state of mental wellbeing. The next time you have the sudden urge to cuddle with something cute or burst into tears of relief and joy, remember that this is your body’s way of coping!


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