Psychophysiological Responses to <i>Kawaii</i> Pictures With or Without Baby Schema

Nittono, Hiroshi; Ihara, Namiha

doi:10.1177/2158244017709321

Cited by 50 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Zygomaticus EMG activity was higher in the AT condition than that in the NE condition, whereas corrugator EMG activity was lower in the AT condition than in the NE condition. These results are consistent with past findings that the viewing of stimuli with baby schema (e.g., an infant’s face) increases zygomaticus EMG activity (e.g., Nittono and Ihara, 2017). The number of SCRs and change scores for HR did not differ between the AT and NE condition.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…Furthermore, we compared facial and physiological responses to moving films using films that also elicited other types of positive emotions such as amusement, attachment, and calmness to examine whether the elicited emotional state of being moved is distinct from the other types of positive emotions. These specific types of positive emotions were chosen because their facial and physiological responses have been relatively well characterized in the existing literature (for a review, see Kreibig, 2010; Shiota et al, 2011; Nittono and Ihara, 2017). This allowed us to compare the emotional state of being moved and other types of positive emotions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Emotional State of Being Moved Elicited by Films: A Comparison With Several Positive Emotions

et al. 2019

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This study investigated the facial and physiological activities that are associated with the emotional state of being moved. We elicited the emotional states of being moved, amusement, attachment, and calmness by presenting participants with film clips; we assessed their electromyographic, electrodermal, and cardiac responses to the films. Further, we used a high- and low-arousal moving film to examine the effect of different levels of arousal on facial and physiological responses to moving films. We compared facial and physiological responses to positive-emotion and emotionally neutral films. Analysis of subjective emotion scale ratings revealed that the films had successfully elicited the target positive emotions and that the high- and low-arousal moving films had elicited the feeling of being moved in accordance with the anticipated level of intensity. In comparison to the other types of positive-emotion films, the two moving films resulted in an increase in corrugator electromyography activity and skin conductance responses, which in turn were modulated by the arousal level of the moving films. However, cardiac measures such as heart rate did not differ across the different film conditions. These results suggest that film clips can elicit different intensities of the emotional state of being moved and that facial muscle and electrodermal activities but not cardiac activity characterize the film-induced emotional state of being moved.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotional State of Being Moved Elicited by Films: A Comparison With Several Positive Emotions

et al. 2019

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“…First, cute stimuli such as infant faces attract attention via bottom-up processes (Brosch et al, 2007;Lucion et al, 2017). This process can occur at a very early stage of visual processing (Brosch et al, 2008) and lasts for several seconds (Nittono and Ihara, 2017). Second, viewing cute pictures has an aftereffect on subsequent task performance, as described at the beginning of this paper (Sherman et al, 2009;Nittono et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Effects of Viewing Cute Pictures on Quiet Eye Duration and Fine Motor Task Performance

2020

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We investigated if viewing cute pictures could improve fine motor skills and prolong quiet eye (QE) duration. QE is a gaze phenomenon, and its duration (i.e., the period between fixation onset preceding a critical movement and fixation offset) is thought to represent attention control. As it has been reported that QE duration is longer for expert athletes than for novice athletes in various sports and becomes shorter even for experts who choke under pressure during games, resulting in performance deterioration, QE prolongation is important to prevent choking under pressure. Separately, several studies have confirmed that viewing cute pictures can induce focal attention, thus improving performance in fine motor tasks. We hypothesized that viewing cute pictures may modulate attention control and prolong QE duration. We also tested if the beneficial effects of viewing cute pictures could be obtained in a high-pressure situation in which participant performance was evaluated by an experimenter. We used a fine-motor task requiring participants to use a pair of tweezers to remove 12 small pieces from holes in a game board. We randomly assigned participants to either the baby-animal pictures group or the adult-animal pictures group, based on pictures viewed prior to the task. Participants executed the task in a pre-test, post-test, and pressure test. In both the post-test and the pressure test, participants viewed seven photographs of either baby animals or adult animals before execution of the task. In accordance with previous research, task precision increased after viewing pictures of baby animals in both the post-test and pressure test. Furthermore, QE duration was also prolonged after viewing cute pictures in the post-test, but not in the pressure test. Neither performance improvement nor QE prolongation was found after viewing pictures of adult animals. These results suggested that simply viewing cute pictures could prolong QE duration without pressure and might provide a beneficial effect on performance, even in a high-pressure situation.

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“…Witnessing a caring and tender relationship between others is typically moving and heart-warming in itself, even when the protagonists are not cute (Schubert et al, 2016; Seibt et al, 2017a,b). Nittono and Ihara (2017) have shown that cute images typically elicit facial muscles associated with smiling. Smiling often occurs in communal feelings, especially when they intensify, and is a common (though not unique/distinctive) reaction to kama muta experiences (Zickfeld, 2015; Zickfeld et al, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2019

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A configuration of infantile attributes including a large head, large eyes, with a small nose and mouth low on the head comprise the visual baby schema or Kindchenschema that English speakers call “cute.” In contrast to the stimulus gestalt that evokes it, the evoked emotional response to cuteness has been little studied, perhaps because the emotion has no specific name in English, Norwegian, or German. We hypothesize that cuteness typically evokes kama muta, a social-relational emotion that in other contexts is often labeled in English as being moved or touched, heartwarming, nostalgia, patriotic feeling, being touched by the Spirit, the feels, etcetera. What evokes kama muta is sudden intensification of a communal sharing (CS) relationship, either CS between the person and another, or CS between observed others. In accord with kama muta theory, we hypothesize that a kama muta response to cuteness results from a sudden feeling of CS with the cute target. In colloquial terms, the perceiver adores the cute kittens and their heart goes out to them. When a person perceives cute targets interacting affectionately – that is, intensifying CS between them – this should strengthen a kama muta response. We experimentally investigated these predictions in two studies ( N = 356). Study 1 revealed that videos of cute targets evoked significantly more kama muta than videos of targets that were not particularly cute. Study 2, pre-registered, found that, as hypothesized, when cute targets interacted affectionately they evoked more kama muta and were humanized more than when they were not interacting. We measured the level of kama muta by self-reports of sensations and signs and of feelings labeled heartwarming, being moved , and being touched . Participants’ ratings of kama muta were positively correlated with reported cuteness. In addition, as in our previous research on kama muta elicited by other types of stimuli, trait empathic concern predicted kama muta responses and perceived cuteness. The studies thus provide first evidence that cute stimuli evoke the heartwarming emotion of kama muta.

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Psychophysiological Responses to Kawaii Pictures With or Without Baby Schema

Cited by 50 publications

References 49 publications

Emotional State of Being Moved Elicited by Films: A Comparison With Several Positive Emotions

Emotional State of Being Moved Elicited by Films: A Comparison With Several Positive Emotions

Effects of Viewing Cute Pictures on Quiet Eye Duration and Fine Motor Task Performance

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

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