Scientists may have found a reason why you can’t stop pinching the cheeks of adorable babies.

　　科学家们可能已经找到原因，为啥你会忍不住捏可爱宝宝的脸颊。

　　Researchers at Yale University describe this phenomenon as “cute aggression.” They studied the brains of 52 participants via electrophysiology and found that people have a strong reaction to pets and humans with more infantile features.

　　耶鲁大学的研究人员将这种现象描述为“可爱侵略性”。他们通过电生理学研究了52名参与者的大脑，发现人们对宠物和有更多婴儿特征的人类反应强烈。

　　“The Yale researchers initially found that people reported feeling cute aggression more in response to baby animals versus adult animals,” Katherine Stavropoulos, a special education professor at the University of California, wrote in a press release. “But even beyond that, people reported feeling cute aggression more in response to picture of human babies that had been digitally enhanced to appear more infantile, and therefore ‘more cute,’ by enlarging features like their eyes, cheeks, and foreheads.”

　　加州大学特殊教育教授凯瑟琳.斯塔夫罗普洛斯在一篇新闻稿中写道：“耶鲁大学的研究人员最初发现，与成年动物相比，人们对幼小动物的可爱侵略性更强烈。但除此之外，当人们看到经过数码强化处理，更婴儿化的婴儿照片时，他们的可爱侵略感也更强烈。这些照片通过放大他们的眼睛、脸颊和额头等面部特征显得更‘可爱’。”

　　The study also saw that respondents felt more overwhelmed and wanted to take care of cute baby animals over less cute adult animals.

　　研究还发现，与不太可爱的成年动物相比，被调查者会不可抑制地更想照顾可爱的小动物。

　　Stavropoulos argues that our “cute aggression,” the feeling that something is so adorable you can’t take it, serves as an evolutionary function.

　　斯塔夫罗普洛斯认为，我们的“可爱侵略性”是一种感觉，即认为某样东西太可爱了，你无法接受，这是一种进化功能。

　　“For example, if you find yourself incapacitated by how cute a baby is — so much so that you simply can’t take care of it — that baby is going to starve,” Stavropoulos said. “Cute aggression may serve as a tempering mechanism that allows us to function and actually take care of something we might first perceive as overwhelmingly cute.”

　　斯塔夫罗普洛斯说:“举例来说，如果你发现自己无法忍受宝宝的可爱程度，以至于你根本无法照顾它，那么宝宝就会饿死。可爱攻击性可以作为一种调节机制，让我们能够正常生活，并真正照顾那些我们一开始觉得超级可爱的东西。”