Having the uncontrollable urge to smoosh your neighbor’s adorable puppy or punch a random kitten in the face is "completely normal," according to a new study. So basically, researchers have found that the human race is full of psychopaths with a naturally aggressive response to things they find adorably vulnerable. Excellent.

Researchers recently decided to take a closer look at the phenomenon known as “cute aggression,” after overhearing one too many conversations about how all of those cute and cuddly photos circulating around the Internet sometimes cause unwarranted feelings of destruction in viewers.

To dig further into this psycho-madness, they studied the reactions of about 110 people who were asked to look at some cute, funny and neutral animal photos. What they found was that photos of cute animals caused a loss of self-control and a desire to squeeze the living daylights out of the poor creature – more so than the reaction sustained from looking at funny or neutral photos.

Researchers say they are not exactly sure what causes this level of aggression when staring into the eyes of cuteness, but they believe it could be due to an overwhelming rush of positive emotions – similar to that of a child who loves his pet so much that he inadvertently causes its eyeball to pop out from hugging it too tightly. Remember John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’? Yeah, like that. Oh, Lenny.

The good news is that it doesn’t appear that we’re all a bunch of heartless lunatics running around looking for a fluffy animal to kill and devour. However, learn from Lenny's mistakes, and remember: “the best laid schemes of mice and men, often go awry.”

 

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