The Power of Kawaii: Viewing Cute Images Promotes a Careful Behavior and Narrows Attentional Focus

Abstract

Kawaii (a Japanese word meaning “cute”) things are popular because they produce positive feelings. However, their effect on behavior remains unclear. In this study, three experiments were conducted to examine the effects of viewing cute images on subsequent task performance. In the first experiment, university students performed a fine motor dexterity task before and after viewing images of baby or adult animals. Performance indexed by the number of successful trials increased after viewing cute images (puppies and kittens; M ± SE = 43.9±10.3% improvement) more than after viewing images that were less cute (dogs and cats; 11.9±5.5% improvement). In the second experiment, this finding was replicated by using a non-motor visual search task. Performance improved more after viewing cute images (15.7±2.2% improvement) than after viewing less cute images (1.4±2.1% improvement). Viewing images of pleasant foods was ineffective in improving performance (1.2±2.1%). In the third experiment, participants performed a global–local letter task after viewing images of baby animals, adult animals, and neutral objects. In general, global features were processed faster than local features. However, this global precedence effect was reduced after viewing cute images. Results show that participants performed tasks requiring focused attention more carefully after viewing cute images. This is interpreted as the result of a narrowed attentional focus induced by the cuteness-triggered positive emotion that is associated with approach motivation and the tendency toward systematic processing. For future applications, cute objects may be used as an emotion elicitor to induce careful behavioral tendencies in specific situations, such as driving and office work.

Too sweet to eat: Exploring the effects of cuteness on meat consumption

“…Of course, because this relationship was correlational it cannot provide any causal inferences regarding the role of caretaking. We still observed similar effects as reported in past literature investigating caretaking behavior targeted at other humans (Nittono et al, 2012;Sherman et al, 2009Sherman et al, , 2013, but only in the US sample. Specifically, in Study 3a, caretaking was positively associated with cuteness responses and also with empathy.…”

“…Specifically, female participants scoring high on a pro-social orientation measure showed more physical care by making fewer errors in the task after watching cute stimuli than less pro-social participants did. Similar results were observed with Japanese participants, suggesting some cross-cultural validity of the relationship (Nittono et al, 2012). Further evidence is provided by an experimental study employing cute and noncute infant pictures and assessing motivations to take care of these infants (Glocker et al, 2009).…”

“…The phenomenon of cuteness has been observed across a number of cultures, with some having evolved more profound societal implementations such as the Japanese kawaii, which is roughly translated as cute (Nittono et al, 2012). Moreover, empirical research has identified several inter-individual and biological differences in cuteness responses.…”

“…A number of theoretical accounts have argued that such motivations are direct and causal outcomes of cuteness responses (Kringelbach et al, 2016;Sherman & Haidt, 2011). Extensive experimental evidence has been provided on this proposition (Glocker et al, 2009;Nittono et al, 2012;Sherman et al, 2009). In one study, viewing cute puppies or kittens in contrast to more neutral cats and dogs led participants to act more carefully, making fewer errors in a fine motor task (Sherman et al, 2009).…”

Psychophysiological Responses to Kawaii Pictures With or Without Baby Schema

“…It has been shown that viewing kawaii pictures with baby schema promotes careful behavior and narrows the focus of attention (Nittono, Fukushima, Yano, & Moriya, 2012;Sherman et al, 2009;Sherman, Haidt, Iyer, & Coan, 2013). It is interesting to test whether this effect also occurs after viewing kawaii stimuli without baby schema.…”