Previously, the conventional wisdom had always been that there is no stronger bond than that between parents and their newborn child. This is why researchers are so shocked at this apparent blind spot, where parents who share a love of Star Wars would happily part with their child permanently if the right offer came along.
Generally speaking, the bond between young parents and their newborn child is absolutely incredible, and unmatched by any other relationship.
Parents would generally do anything for their young kids, often sacrificing their own physical and mental wellbeing along the way.
All of that has recently been thrown on its head, with the release of The Mandalorian, an extremely popular American Space Western web television series. The series is set five years after the conclusion of Return of the Jedi, which was the third instalment of the original Star Wars trilogy.
In particular, it is the appearance of Baby Yoda that has thrown into disarray everything that we previously thought we knew about parenting. In a recent survey, a staggering 83% of fans confessed that they would engage in a swap of their newborn child for Baby Yoda.
One of the survey participants, Mark Stannis is the proud and doting father of little Emily Stannis. He spoke to Coastal Tribune about his willingness to engage in such an exchange.
"Look. We're dealing in hypotheticals here. I don't think it's that likely that an opportunity such as that would ever arise. But seriously? Yeah. If that little dude was sitting there in his little basket, looking at me with those eyes, and I was holding Emily, well....yeah. Yeah I think I would. Emily's lovely, and I previously would never have entertained the idea of a swap of ANY kind. Honestly. But look at that little dude. Even my wife agrees and she's not even that into Star Wars. He just makes my heart sing at least 10% more than Emily does."
The last time that a fictional character had anything like this effect was the arrival of the Mogwai dubbed "Gizmo" in the original Gremlins movie. However, that love affair was slightly tempered by the fact that it turned into a nasty little murderous turd of a thing a little later in the movie.
With Baby Yoda, we have no such luck.
With the benefit of having seen the other Star Wars instalments, we happen to know that he remains pretty seriously cute even at the ripe old age of nine hundred.