(CNBC) If you loved "Surprised Kitty" or "Sneezing Baby Panda" on YouTube but quickly opened another Internet browser at work so it didn't look like you were slacking, you can come out of the closet, cute animal lovers.
Yes, you can has cheezburger.
A new study out of Japan (of course. Hello, kitty.) shows that looking at cute animal pictures can actually improve a person's productivity at work.
The idea, is that their tiny faces, doing supercute things, trigger a care-giving impulse in humans, much like seeing babies. This encourages friendliness and can even boost productivity in tasks that require focus. You know how people slow down their speech when talking to a child? Yeah, it's kind of like that.
How did they test this theory, you say?