快到碗裏來：爲什麼我們一見萌物就hold不住

Seeing something cute actually does bring out aggression in us, according to a paper presented at Society for Personality and Social Psychology's annual meeting in New Orleans last Friday.
根據上週五在新奧爾良的“個性和社會心理學研究會”年會上的一份報告的說法，看見可愛的東西確實會讓人變得更加有攻擊性。

Researchers found 109 people to look at pictures of animals -- cute, funny and "neutral" photos of fluffy, fluffy puppies. The lucky participants then rated how they felt about the pictures: whether they agreed with the statement like "I just can't handle it!" , whether they made them want to squeeze something or whether they were suddenly seized with the impulse to say something like "grr!" The cuter the animal, the more aggressive the response.
研究者給109個實驗參加者分別看了不同的動物圖片，其中有可愛的、有搞笑的，以及“一般”的毛茸茸的小狗。這些幸運的參與者們接着對照片給他們的感覺進行了評價，如“實在是可愛得受不了了！”這樣的說法是否符合他們的感受；又如他們是否有想要捏東西的衝動、是否突然有喊“唔啊啊啊啊！”的衝動。結果顯示：動物越可愛，人們的反應也越激烈。

The study's researchers, led by Rebecca Dyer, a graduate student in psychology at Yale University, dubs the phenomenon "cute aggression".
耶魯大學心理學碩士Rebecca Dyer領導的研究團隊把這種現象稱爲“可愛引發的攻擊性”。

"We think it's about high positive-affect, an approach orientation and almost a sense of lost control," she said. It's so adorable, it drives you crazy.
“我們認爲，這種現象表現爲高度積極的情緒、行動傾向，和一種幾乎失控的感覺，”她說道。它太可愛了，可愛到讓你發瘋。

But for the sake of thoroughness, researchers did a second experiment to test whether the aggression was simply verbal, or whether people really did want to act out in response to wide-eyed kittens and cherubic babies. Volunteers were given bubble wrap and told they could pop as much of it as they wanted.
不過爲了確保實驗的完整性，研究者又進行了第二個實驗，測試人們看到大眼睛的貓咪和胖乎乎的寶寶時，他們表現出來攻擊性是否會真的付諸行動，還是單單只是口頭上的。研究者給了志願者們一些外包裝氣泡膜，告訴他們隨便擠破多少都可以。

When faced with a slideshow of cute animals, people popped 120 bubbles, whereas people watching the funny and neutral slideshows popped 80 and 100 bubbles respectively.
看了可愛動物幻燈片的志願者擠破了120個泡泡，而看了搞笑的或者普通動物照片的人則分別平均擠破了80個和100個泡泡。

Dyer's suggests that one reason we have so much pent-up aggression over cute pictures is that seeing something cute, like a baby, drives us to want to take care of it. But we can't reach through a photograph to cuddle it, so we get frustrated -- and then aggressive.
Dyer的團隊提出，看到像小寶寶這樣可愛事物照片之所以會產生攻擊性行爲，這是因爲人有想要照顧它們的衝動。但是光看照片我們並不能真的抱到可愛的東西，所以人會變得失落，進而變得有攻擊性。

Another possibility is that it's just too much of a good thing -- sometimes we portray an onslaught of positive emotion in a negative way, like when you're so happy you cry. Dyer speculates that giving positive emotions a negative spin might help us regulate that high energy.
另外一種可能性是：好事過頭反成壞事——有的時候我們會用消極地表現積極的情緒，如喜極而泣。Dyer推測到，用消極的方法表現積極情緒也許能幫助人控制過剩的精力。

So the next time an aunt moves in to pinch your cheeks, just think -- you can't help being cute. And if there are any follow up studies, I'd happily volunteer to look at some puppies -- kittens and bunnies are within my expertise, too.
所以下次阿姨捏你臉的時候，你只要想：你實在是太可愛了，沒辦法。如果還有後續研究的話，我會很樂意去做志願者，去看看小狗狗的照片，看貓咪和小兔的照片也是我的專長！