Why Do We Throw & Bite Babies? (Other than them being delicious)

Join us as we dive into the fascinating and bizarre phenomenon of 'cute aggression,' where cross-culturally, people show affection towards infants in unexpected ways, like biting and tossing them. We discuss the scientific research behind these behaviors, their evolutionary origins, and cultural differences. We'll also challenge some popular scientific explanations and propose new perspectives on why these instincts might exist. Don't miss this intriguing conversation full of surprising insights and engaging anecdotes!

Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] Hello Simone. I'm excited to be here with you today. Today we are going to be talking about the bizarre phenomenon of people cross-culturally it appears. Bite infants as a sign of affection. And another thing that people often do with young children as a sign of affection is toss them in the air.

These are, these are both things that I have personally witnessed. And I think even with like, biting gently an infant's hand, it's an instinctual saying for me at least, like my infant instinctually puts their hand towards my mouth oh, and they

Simone Collins: laugh and are just so delighted if you pretend to bite their hands or even bite them softly.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah,

Simone Collins: so weird.

Malcolm Collins: And so I'm, I, I was like, first I was like, is this just like a weird thing from maybe my family or my genetic line? So I go to look up if this is because I also have seen people in my family toss toddlers. And I also wanna see is this, is this something other people do to other people?

Because that seems like the opposite of what you would want to do as a toddler. If your goal was to keep something who is genetically close to you alive is toss it in the [00:01:00] air.

Malcolm Collins: And I go up and I look into it and there's a bunch of conservatives who I guess have never had kids or been around kids a lot, or maybe they're from cultures that just don't do this for freaking out over Joe Biden, like biting infant's feet.

So apparently this is so common. Even Joe Biden did this. Now I would say that they are right. You don't do that to other people's babies. I would never think to bite a stranger's baby or throw a

Simone Collins: stranger's baby. Yeah, 100%. That

Malcolm Collins: feels like really over the line. Yeah. It's

Simone Collins: like it's, it's an intimate act, even if it's just playful and silly.

Yeah,

Malcolm Collins: in the same way, I wouldn't toss a stranger's baby. You don't, you don't you don't do that. Yeah. Ly we'll go over some cultures where they do do that. They're the ceremony in India where they'll throw babies off of a roof. Wait, what? Into like a, a, a ball pit? No, no, no, no, no. They like hold the sheet like tau to make like a trampoline that they can, like, catch it in.

Oh. [00:02:00] And they'll throw it off the roof

Speaker: It's an annual tradition in India where babies are tossed from a rooftop. The practice known as Oakley involves priests tossing babies off the roof of a temple onto a sheet held by the people below.

Malcolm Collins: For prosperity apparently. So, for prosperity. Well,

Simone Collins: I mean at this point, you know, if only the really fittest survive, but,

Malcolm Collins: but he did mention that toddler tossing is a uniquely like the way that I have seen it practice, it's a uniquely u European and, and white phenomenon.

They do it more than other groups. There aren't a lot of other groups that don't do like the five foot in the air toddler toss which I've definitely seen.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: So we're gonna go over the scientific research that exists on this. And just, you know, like how common this is. I found an article here I can share.

In Motherly it's science. Wanting to eat your baby makes you a better parent. [00:03:00] No. What? Okay. Well, no. Think about it. You hear this all the time, like, I just want to eat 'em up or something like that. Yeah, totally. It's a common. Common. And you don't just see this with, with biting and tossing a form of this that is not common within my culture.

I've literally never seen anyone in my family unit do this, but I've seen people do it on shows is pinching infants. The cheeks.

Simone Collins: Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. So we're gonna go into why I think people actually do this, what the scientists say about this, which I think that they're wrong about it. And what's going on here?

All right. So the science this behavior is linked to a psychological phenomenon known as cute aggression, also called playful aggression or dimorphic dimorphic expression. I'm sorry. Wait.

Simone Collins: Cute. Aggression is a scientific term.

Malcolm Collins: Yes, we're, this world is beautiful. Positive emotions towards something adorable, such as a baby trigger.

Seemingly aggressive, but affectionate impulses like wanting to squeeze, pinch, or bite. It serves as an emotion regulation [00:04:00] mechanism, helping individuals cope with intense feelings of adoration to enable better caregiving.

Simone Collins: Do you think. A playful butt slap or the punch on the shoulder. Is that cute aggression too, or is that No,

Malcolm Collins: I, I, I think a scientist aggression who believes in this theory may argue that Uhhuh but I'm gonna argue that cute aggression doesn't exist at all.

And that this is something totally different. But I'm going into science. Okay. Okay. Because I think the scientists are just wrong on this one. They, they noticed a collection of behaviors where you toss a baby or lightly bite a baby or pinch a baby's cheeks that all appear aggressive. And they mistook these behaviors is all being caused by the same impulse.

When I actually think that they are each caused by a different and unique impulse that better explains them than what the scientists say. So scientific basis and prevalence research since 2015 led by psychologists like Ora Argon has shown that acute aggression is experienced by about half of adults when viewing or interacting with acute stimuli, including infants.

Brain imaging studies [00:05:00] EEG using EEG and FMRI revealed heightened activity and rewarded emotional centers like the orbital frontal cortex when people encounter cuteness leading to these paradoxical urges. For instance, one study found participants reported stronger aggressive expressions. EGI wanna bite it.

Exclamation mark. Towards more infantile looking babies compared to less cute ones mediated by feelings of being emotionally overwhelmed. It's not driven by harmful intent or neuro hormones but by neuro hormones like oxytocin, promoting affection in vasopressin linked to protective aggression, which evolves to enhance bonding or protection of vulnerable offspring.

So I, I note there that the only evidence that they have of this is you get what they consider an aggressive sentiment. I wanna bite it when the thing is more cute, but I'm gonna argue that there's something else that could lead to that.

Speaker 3: Hmm.

Malcolm Collins: It is so cute. I could crush it. Exclamation part. That's the name of a study.

Understanding neural mechanisms of acute Aggression, [00:06:00] Catherine Km Stefopolis and Laura a Alba, 2018 using EEG to measure brain activity. This study found that cute aggression correlates with heightened neural responses in emotional salience. Larger in