It’s known as that “warm and fuzzy” feeling for a reason: It’s the emotion that we experience after looking at photos of puppies, kitties, or—sigh—baby bunnies.

But could those animals help us feel warmer and fuzzier toward our significant others, too?

That’s what psychologists at Florida State University wanted to find out. They conducted a study of 144 married couples to test the hypothesis that the flames of affection could be fanned if the participants were trained to think differently about their spouses.

In science jargon, the process is called “evaluative conditioning”—by pairing images of a partner with those of a puppy or bunny (as opposed to, say, Godzilla), along with words like “wonderful,” the good vibes that the subject gets from seeing these cute images automatically become associated with the partner.

Guess what? Those who viewed animal images paired with their partner’s face showed more positive automatic reactions.

Just one thing: Everyone who participated in the study was younger than 40—the average age was 28—and had been married for less than five years. Fewer than half had kids. So we’ve decided to conduct our own study to see what the puppy/kitten/bunny test does for Prime readers.

Find a photograph of a to-die-for animal—or better yet, gaze at the real deal, perhaps your rescued senior, spayed or neutered dog, cat, or house rabbit—then take a lingering look into the eyes of your special someone. Does your pulse race? Have trouble swallowing? Maybe you’re overcome by the need to put on a Barry White record and draw a warm bath.

Once you come up for air, connect with us on our Peta Prime Facebook page and let us know whether we’re on to something.

Who says science isn’t fun?