Research on the influence of the baby schema effect on the cuteness and trustworthiness of social robot faces

Chen, Chien-Hsiung; Jia, Xiaoyu

doi:10.1177/17298806231168486

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…The baby schema refers to the infantile appearance that babies and children have, including large eyes and a round face, traits that Pepper exhibits. The baby schema is known to induce an attentional bias in a human context (Brosch et al, 2007), and has already been shown to relate to an increase in trustworthiness in robots (Chen & Jia, 2023).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Perceived Eye Contact in Helping Robots

Potinteu,

Darboven,

Rahmel

et al. 2024

Preprint

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As Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) becomes increasingly prevalent in various domains, understanding the role of non-verbal cues, such as eye contact, in these interactions is of paramount importance. This paper presents the results of a lab study that explores the effect of eye contact and perceived eye contact on response times related to helping behavior. We further investigate the impact of eye contact on attitudes and anthropomorphism. We observed no effect of eye contact on willingness to help. However, participants helped the robot significantly faster when they reported perceived eye contact. Results also point to the relevance of perceived eye contact in positive attitudes towards robots. Despite this, we found no effect of perceived eye contact on anthropomorphism perception. Our results further highlight implications of robot design, specifically the influence of proportionally exaggerated robot eyes and its effect on prosociality toward robots. Overall, this research contributes to the growing body of knowledge in the field of HRI and emphasizes the significance of perceived eye contact in the context of helping behavior.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Perceived Eye Contact in Helping Robots

Potinteu,

Darboven,

Rahmel

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…For example, cute objects influence people’s compliance behaviors (Bellfield et al ., 2011), task attention (Nittono et al ., 2012), indulgent consumption (Nenkov and Scott, 2014), recycling behaviors (Wang et al ., 2017), decisions relating to temporal focus (Li et al ., 2019), risk preferences (Li and Yan, 2021), brand attitude (Septianto and Paramita, 2021), brand engagement (Lee and Hsieh, 2019), responses to destination marketing (Su and Li, 2023; Ye et al ., 2023; Xu et al ., 2022), prosocial behavior (Yang et al ., 2022; Jang, 2022; Shin and Mattila, 2021) and reaction after brand transgressions (Septianto and Kwon, 2022). Recent research has found an impact of cuteness in new domains, including AI (Lv et al ., 2022), AI voice assistants (Yu et al ., 2022), social robot faces (Chen and Jia, 2023) and insect-based foods (Marquis et al ., 2023).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

As cute as a button: the effect of size on online product cuteness perception

Li,

Eastman

2023

JPBM

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Purpose Cute products have found market success. The literature has identified various factors of cuteness, but the effect of size is under-addressed. This study aims to investigate whether and how size perception influences consumers’ cuteness perception. Design/methodology/approach In three experiments, size was manipulated in terms of visual cue, product description and product name to determine its impact on cuteness perception. Findings The results of the three experiments demonstrate that a size cue of smallness can heighten consumers’ perception of product cuteness. The first two studies provided converging evidence for the main hypothesis that smaller objects are evaluated as cuter. Study 3 not only replicated the findings of the first two studies but also revealed that vulnerability acts as the underlying process for the smallness-cuteness relationship. Study 3 also showed that the purchase likelihood for an extended product warranty is higher in the small condition compared to the control condition. Research limitations/implications While the findings were robust across product types and size manipulations, possible boundary conditions related to product types or individual characteristics were not tested. Practical implications The findings suggest how brand managers can use size perceptions to influence consumers’ perceptions of the cuteness of their products and brands. Originality/value The findings inform brand managers about the nuances of size cues that may affect how customers perceive their products and identify a more generally applicable cuteness factor that may have downstream implications for marketing practitioners.

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“…This effect of infantile features on human cuteness perception is generalized to non-human animal faces [ 30 , 31 ] and even artificial objects such as cars [ 32 ], which attracts attention from applied fields of research such as product design (e.g. [ 33 ]). It may seem, therefore, that the baby schema hypothesis has been established on a solid body of empirical research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lorenz’s classic ‘baby schema’: a useful biological concept?

Kawaguchi,

Waller

2024

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Konrad Lorenz introduced the concept of a ‘baby schema’, suggesting that infants have specific physical features, such as a relatively large head, large eyes and protruding cheeks, which function as an innate releaser to promote caretaking motivation from perceivers. Over the years, a large body of research has been conducted on the baby schema. However, there are two critical problems underpinning the current literature. First, the term ‘baby schema’ lacks consistency among researchers. Some researchers use the term baby schema to refer to infant stimuli (often faces) in comparison with adults ( categorical usage ), while others use the term to refer to the extent that features contribute to cuteness perception ( spectrum usage ). Second, cross-species continuity of the ‘baby schema’ has been assumed despite few empirical demonstrations. The evolutionary and comparative relevance of the concept is, therefore, debatable, and we cannot exclude the possibility that extreme sensitivity to the baby schema is a uniquely human trait. This article critically reviews the state of the existing literature and evaluates the significance of the baby schema from an evolutionary perspective.

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Research on the influence of the baby schema effect on the cuteness and trustworthiness of social robot faces

Cited by 4 publications

References 58 publications

The Role of Perceived Eye Contact in Helping Robots

The Role of Perceived Eye Contact in Helping Robots

As cute as a button: the effect of size on online product cuteness perception

Lorenz’s classic ‘baby schema’: a useful biological concept?

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