Body proportions as information for age and cuteness: Animals in illustrated children’s books

Abstract

Growth systematically changes the body proportions of both humans and animals so that the ratio of head height to body height decreases with age. Prior studies have demonstrated that body proportions provide effective information for age perception. To test the proposal that illustrators incorporate this information into their drawings, measurements were made of the head and body heights of 100 pairs of animals appearing in children's picture books. In 93 pairs, the animal intended to be perceived as older had a smaller head-to-body ratio than did the younger animal. Ratings collected for 25 of these pairs showed that both perceived age and cuteness are significantly correlated with body proportions. The magnitudes of the correlations were only modest, suggesting that other aspects of the drawings influenced perceived age and cuteness. In addition, observers reported that body proportions are only one of a variety of factors influencing age and cuteness perception. As has been found in other studies, perceived age and cuteness were negatively correlated. 124How can events be portrayed in static pictures? One potential answer to this question is suggested by J. J. Gibson's approach to picture perception (1971). He argued that pictures and real objects can lead to the same perceptions because they contain the same information. Applied to perception of events portrayed in static pictures, this theory would hold that aspects of the patterns of change that serve as information for real events can be incorporated into pictures of events.The studies reported here concern the depiction of age in drawings of animals in children's books. Specifically, they test the proposal that illustrators portray an animal's age by incorporating the changes in body proportions characteristic of actual growth into the drawings.From the perspective of the ecological approach to perception (Gibson, 1979), this proposal contains two assumptions about growth and its perception. The first is that there exist regularities in the visible patterns of growth. That is, there is visual information for the perception of growth. Second, detection of this information supports perception of growth and age. Prior research justifies these assumptions about the perception of human growth.

Human Attitude toward Reptiles: A Relationship between Fear, Disgust, and Aesthetic Preferences

“…Such a result fits well with the fact that crocodiles together with snakes are the only reptilian predators capable of killing a human [41,42,43,100]. There is also the alligator snapping turtle ( Macrochelys temminckii ) and Komodo dragon ( Varanus komodoensis ), which may be potentially dangerous for humans considering their large body size, although attacks from these species are very rare and the inflicted injuries are mostly manageable [101]. In fact, contrary to crocodiles or large constrictors, both the snapping turtle and Komodo dragon do not consider humans as prey.…”

Too Cute for Words: Cuteness Evokes the Heartwarming Emotion of Kama Muta

“…Lorenz (1943) described a configuration of infantile physical characteristics that he termed Kindchenschema , ‘baby schema’ (see also Glocker et al, 2009). 3 A long line of psychological studies shows that when English speakers perceive beings that display such characteristics they label them cute (for example Pittenger, 1990; Gross, 1997; Volk et al, 2007). Stimuli such as human and animal infants draw attention, and people look at them longer than at less cute beings (Hildebrandt and Fitzgerald, 1978, 1981; Bellfield et al, 2011; Little, 2012; Golle et al, 2013; Borgi et al, 2014).…”

Role of culture in the emotional response towards komodo dragon in Komodo and Rinca Islands of Komodo National Park

“…The villagers in the study sites viewed four reptiles existed in KNP as dangerous ( Larger reptile species such as Komodo dragon were evaluated as more frightening due to their large body size. It is thus possible that these animals evoked high fear in the respondents due to their physical appearance,which apart from body size, also include sharp edges, and the dark colour [45] and not due to their real dangerousness. Based on research by Davey [46] and Ware et al [47], lizard is categorised as feared animal, meaning that the species is highly feared without posing real danger [48].…”