35 Pics That Might Make You Say “Awww” Before You Realize How Disturbing They Are

The Awwwtf subreddit is the perfect place to go if you want to feel mixed emotions. You’ll find adorable photos and videos of animals that leave you slightly disturbed in the end and photos of things you find precious but would be terrified of in real life. According to the group’s About Community, it’s simply “a subreddit that makes you say, 'Aww! Ooh? What the [heck]?!' Then aww again.”

There’s no question that us users of the internet love adorable, wholesome content, and we also can’t seem to get enough of disturbing, disgusting and unsettling content. So why not mix them together for a subreddit that has the best of both worlds? At first glance, it may sound strange to combine things that freak you out and things you find precious. But when we think about how we typically respond to adorable photos and animals, the combination might make a little bit more sense. 

Have you ever had the urge to squeeze your puppy way harder than you know you should or gritted your teeth painfully hard when cuddling with your partner? You may have experienced “cuteness aggression,” something else that may seem confusing at first glance. If something is adorable, the last thing you would want is to hurt it. So why do we have these opposing impulses when confronted with a cuteness overload?

This phenomenon, first described by Yale researchers in 2015, seems to come from our desire to prevent ourselves from being overwhelmed by cute things. When our brains just can’t handle the preciousness of a soft, cuddly puppy or a warm kitten sleeping in our laps, we might want to resort to aggression (although we know we have no intention of actually harming the adorable creatures).  

When it comes to what causes the most cuteness aggression, baby animals are at the top of the list, Forbes reports. But the interesting thing about groups like Awwwtf is that the “what the [heck]” aspect of the images seems to cut down on the cuteness overload. These pics are adorable, but they might also be strange, hilarious or slightly terrifying. This combination might be just enough to prevent cuteness aggression, although it depends on your preferences, of course. If you find a photo of a baby wombat to be the cutest thing you’ve ever seen in your life, you might want to pinch its little cheeks. But both Awwwtf and cuteness aggression are beautiful reminders of how complex and confusing our feelings can be as humans. Do I want to kiss it or run from it or squeeze it? I can’t decide!   

In the Awwwtf subreddit, there are a few “flairs” that members can tag their posts with, one of which being “Vomit.” This leads me to believe that vomit content is common in the group (although I’m too scared to click on the flair, as I’m emetophobic myself). And while it’s easy to understand why we love adorable photos and videos being shared online, why do we also have a tendency to click on gross things? If you’re a fan of zit-popping videos, I’m looking at you! According to Alexander J. Skolnick, PhD, an assistant psychology professor at Saint Joseph's University, the fear often associated with gross things can actually increase our interest in them.

"Sometimes we're disgusted when we see someone with red rashes or welts,” Skolnick told Shape. “We don't want to stand next to them. That disgust keeps us safe from contagious elements." But at the same time, many of us love roller coasters and horror movies because the fear they create can be exciting, and gross content can give us a very similar rush. We can see a disgusting injury or frightening illness through a controlled environment from a safe distance, through a screen, without putting ourselves in any actual danger. 

Skolnick also says it’s perfectly natural for humans to be curious about things we don’t know much about or don’t understand. “We want to know what's gross out there, what's awful out there," he told Shape. He provided the example of fetishes that are out of the ordinary as well. “You don't want to watch the sexual acts, you just want to know what's out there," he explained. And don’t worry about younger generations or people today being depraved because we’re curious about bizarre topics that disturb or disgust us. Psychology professor Clark McCauley, PhD, told Shape that people have wondered about all of these things long before we were around; we just have more access to information now than ever before.