Cute animal videos that have gone viral include hamsters eating little food, a grumpy cat, and a sneezing baby panda frightening its mother. They have racked up hundreds of millions of views on YouTube and other platforms, and have been featured on Reddit posts, TV shows, and documentaries. Scientists have learned that such videos could be linked to human survival.

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The reason is that people are attracted to anything that has features similar to a baby human. That includes big eyes, chubby cheeks, and a large forehead, according to CNN.

Yale psychologist Oriana Aragon shared that people are programmed to respond to baby features.  Many scientists believe human evolution has caused people to develop the attraction for their survival.

Aragon explained humans must care for their young so the species can survive. Thus, it is natural for people to respond to cute animal videos such as on social networks. People react the same way they do to cute animal videos as they do when they see a human baby.

When people see cute animals in videos it causes the chemical compound dopamine to light up the brain's pleasure centers. It is the same response after eating sugar.

Aargon explained that the pleasure people experience is like a habit because they always need more. People want their "cute fix."

Early humans ate high-calorie foods in order to survive. Seeing a cute baby has the same effect, causing people to cuddle him or her, which rewards the brain with a rush of dopamine.

Sometimes humans also show "dimorphous expressions" that seem to be opposite of their emotions. They include wishing to pinch a cute baby's cheeks.  

Aragon has studied "cute aggression," which causes people to show aggressive behavior because they get excited. They tested the phenomenon.

Aragon and her team showed people baby and adult versions of different animals such as cats and ducks. Some volunteers were given bubble wrap. They popped more bubbles after seeing baby animals than adult animals.

Several animal videos went viral in 2015. They included cucumbers scaring cats, a mother owl fighting a snake, the biggest white shark filmed, a glowing sea turtle, an ex-circus lion feeling grass for the first time, and an octopus carrying a coconut, according to National Geographic.

Here's a mashup video of cute baby animals: