当看到可爱的婴儿、小狗或其她可爱的东西时,我们就会忍不住去揉捏一把,甚至有咬他们一口的冲动,这种场景屡见不鲜。描绘这种反应,可用一个科学术语,那就是“可爱侵略性”,或“萌物攻击性”(“cute
aggression”)。 2015年,耶鲁大学(Yale University)的研究人员发表了一项关于人类对萌物反应的研究,这些反应往往反应了积极的一面,也含有消极的一面。研究人员得出如下的结论,对萌物的反应——从微笑到流泪再到攻击性——是由积极情绪的不同程度诱发的。对萌物的攻击性似乎不是由攻击性意图驱动的。相反,科学家认为这是我们应对强烈积极情绪的一种方式。新南威尔士大学(The
University of New South Wales)科学院社会心理学家丽莎·威廉姆斯(Lisa a.Williams)副教授如是说:“对萌物的攻击性似乎是一种机制,用于管理我们与萌物之间无法处理,但又要互动时所释放出来的压倒性积极情绪。”
它犹如一个压力阀,帮助我们在拥有过度积极情绪时像气球爆炸之前一样释放出来。“换言之,为了平衡压倒性积极情绪,我们试图阻止它——然而奇怪的是,这反而会成为一种攻击性倾向。”
萌萌的猫咪 摄影:毛子泰
为了解开此现象是否可以在大脑活动中被测量之疑团,加州大学河滨分校(University of
California,Riverside)的心理学家凯瑟琳·斯塔夫罗普洛斯(Katherine Stavropoulos)进行了一项特别的研究。该研究团队为54名参与测试者安装了电极帽来测量大脑活动,并向他们展示了32张成年和幼年动物的照片。根据研究人员的说法,婴儿动物的图像得到了最强的反应,参与者对婴儿动物的攻击性比成年动物更可爱。研究还发现,可爱的攻击程度与大脑对萌物的奖励反应之间存在很强的联系。 萌萌的微笑 摄影:傅婷 正如斯塔夫罗普洛斯所总结的那样,萌物攻击性似乎是大脑通过抑制我们占据主导性地位(压倒性)的感觉来“使得我们退缩”的方式。当这两个强大的系统——情绪和奖励——启动时,大脑会通过增加一点攻击性来调和大量的积极情绪。研究人员认为,随着时光的推移,攻击性反应或许在我们物种的生存和适应中发挥了作用,助我们调节情绪并强化社会互信关系。 萌萌的少儿 摄影:毛子泰
附:英文原文 When we see cute babies, puppies, or other adorable things,
it isn’t uncommon to feel a strong urge to pinch or
even bite them. It turns out there’s a scientific term for
this response: “cute aggression”. In 2015, Yale University researchers published a study about
human responses to cuteness, which are often both positive and
negative. The researchers concluded that reactions to cuteness —
ranging from smiles to tears to aggression — are brought on
by the degree of positive emotion. Cute aggression doesn’t
appear to be driven by aggressive intention. Instead, scientists
think it is a way for us to cope with intense positive
emotions.“Cute aggression seems to be a mechanism to manage the
overwhelming positive feelings we get when we interact with
something too cute for us to handle,” says Associate Professor Lisa
A. Williams, a social psychologist from UNSW Science. It is like a
pressure valve that helps us release the excess of positive
emotions before they explode like a balloon.“In
other words, to balance out the overwhelming flood of positive
feelings, we seek to hold it back — and strangely enough, that can
play out as an aggressive inclination.” Wondering whether this phenomenon could be measured in brain
activity, Katherine Stavropoulos, a psychologist at the University
of California, Riverside, conducted a study. The team fitted 54
participants with electrode caps to measure brain activity and
showed them 32 photographs of adult and baby animals. According to
the researchers, the images of baby animals received the strongest
response, and participants expressed more cute aggression
toward baby animals than adult animals. Stavropoulos also
found strong connections between the degree of cute aggression and
the brain’s reward response to adorable animals. As Stavropoulos concluded, cute aggression seems to be
the brain’s way of “bringing us back down” by
suppressing our overwhelming feelings. When
these two powerful systems are started — emotion and reward
— the brain adjusts to the flood of positive feelings by adding a
little aggression. Researchers believe that aggressive responses
may have played a role in the survival and adaptation of our
species over time, helping us regulate emotions and strengthen
social bonds. 萌萌的凝眸 摄影:毛子泰