--- title: "Why Do So Many People Want to Eat Moo Deng?" description: "There's some actual social science behind everyone online wanting to eat Moo Deng the pygmy water hippo in Thailand." date: "2024-09-23" modified: "2024-09-23" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/eating-moo-deng" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "babies" - "hippos" - "memes" - "moo deng" --- # Why Do So Many People Want to Eat Moo Deng? ![There's some actual social science behind everyone online wanting to eat Moo Deng the pygmy water hippo in Thailand.]() *18 September 2024, Thailand, Bang Phra: Two-month-old pygmy hippo Moo Deng tries to bite her keeper's knee at Khao Kheow Open Zoo. The cute little hippo has become an internet sensation in Thailand and other Asian countries because of its funny faces. The number of visitors to the zoo has doubled since its birth in July. Photo: Carola Frentzen/dpa (Photo by Carola Frentzen/picture alliance via Getty Images) \Image: Lillian Suwanrumpha / AFP via Getty (edited) \* If you're anything like us or pretty much [everyone else online](), photos of the virally famous two-month-old Thai pygmy water hippo Moo Deng, will make you gasp with joy and break out in tears — and perhaps, want to eat the adorable animal in question. "I am going to eat moo deng and become the most hated person on the internet," one user on [X-formerly-Twitter wrote](). "I want a Moo Deng birthday cake," [quipped another](). "That way i can do what i want most and eat the little fatty." "Can you imagine," [joked a third](), "how good Moo Deng would taste in a lettuce wrap." Oddly enough, there may be a perfectly reasonable expectation for this ghastly hunger: a documented psychological phenomenon called "[cute aggression]()," in which adorable things like baby animals can cause an unexpected urge toward violence. Perhaps best illustrated by a 2012 "Key & Peele" sketch in which the pair, [dressed in drag](), become so overwhelmed with the cuteness of puppies that they start killing them, experts suggest that this phenomenon may be behind why people have developed such a terrible ravenousness for the defenseless Moo Deng. In an [interview with *HuffPost*](), social psychologist Oriana Aragón — who also happened to be one of the people who [coined the concept]() under the moniker "playful aggression" — said that visitors to Thailand's Khao Kheow Open Zoo who've [started throwing things into her enclosure]() may be acting out this cuteness-triggered behavior to the extreme. "Usually it’s this feeling of being sort of overwhelmed by the cuteness," Aragón said, "and then you just want to pinch and squeeze and bite." People who come to visit the famous and [endangered]() baby hippo at the zoo located outside of Bangkok may be unaware, as evolutionary psychologist Daniel Kruger told the website, that between [biting her handlers]() and [screaming](), she sleeps for 20 hours per day. "They’re sleeping during the daytime," Kruger told *HuffPost*. "I put the responsibility on the people to manage it better, because this poor little hippo could be traumatized by all these people who are aggravating her." While those Moo Deng fans should absolutely not take their cute aggression out on our beloved slimy baby, their behavior does illustrate a well-known phenomenon — though one that none of us, needless to say, should be acting out in real life. **More on animals:** [*Research Finds That Cats Feel Grief When Their Fellow Pets Die... Even Dogs*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()