Cuteness I: How Feeling Fuzzy Helps Your Mind
The concept of “cute” is highly dependent on the cultural context. In essence, the concept can be defined as anything that seems appealing in a pretty or endearing way. Cuteness has long been a subject of research, even before a dedicated field was developed. Psychologists, neurologists, and anthropologists have all observed the way that cuteness as a concept is embedded into the human species.
In this article, the concept of cuteness will be discussed from a more neurobiological and psychological standpoint, as we explore the different ways that cuteness influences our minds and bodies to behave in certain ways. This will also introduce the concept of cuteness as a topic of academic research; since the topic is so vast, this piece will inaugurate a multi-part series exploring cuteness across different contexts.
Evolutionary Advantages of Cuteness
Psychologically, cuteness is a stimulus that evokes responses linked to positive emotions, such as fulfillment and happiness. Some psychologists posit that cuteness has an evolutionary advantage, as human infants who are perceived as cute would be more likely to motivate adults around them to care for them (Hoyt, 2024). Cuteness, in general, is connected to the release of serotonin and dopamine, neurotransmitters responsible for feelings of elation and satisfaction. Additionally, cuteness triggers activation of brain areas related to reward processing, which are also triggered during other rewarding events such as receiving food (Stavropoulos & Alba, 2018). The brain’s reward system is one of the ways in which our bodies motivate us; food and sex are among the most primitive of motivators and rewards that humans have lived on since our species existed. So, it is no surprise that cuteness and other visual stimuli play a role in our survival by helping us perceive threats and discern who we should protect.
Interestingly, cuteness has been shown to affect perceptual and motor abilities. Participants who viewed cute images before unrelated tasks performed tasks with fine motor dexterity as well as non-visual search tasks better than their control group counterparts (Nittono et al., 2012). This study builds upon a previous one, where participants who viewed cute images before assigned tasks were shown to demonstrate increased “behavioral carefulness,” predicted to be due to cuteness priming the human mind and body to act more carefully around beings perceived to be delicate and vulnerable. This demonstrates an evolutionary advantage for exuding cuteness, especially for human infants who, unlike many other animal species, are incapable of caring for themselves after birth (Sherman et al., 2009).
Cuteness and Mental Well-Being
There is a growing body of research concerned with the positive effects that beauty and aesthetics have on mental health. This is not at all surprising, considering how cuteness stimulates similar reactions to other rewarding events. Cuteness is thought to facilitate well-being and relationships by triggering brain regions responsible for empathy and compassion, similar to earlier research looking at the effects of cuteness on caregiving (Kringelback, 2016). The impact of aesthetic beauty and pleasure are often advertised as having positive effects on one’s mental health and overall outlook on life (Sanctum Med + Wellness, 2024).
'Kama muta'’ Sanskrit for 'moved by love,' has also been studied in relation to cuteness. It describes a positive social emotion that is evoked during moments of social interaction, akin to other descriptors like “heart-warming” or “touching.” Cuteness has been shown to evoke kama muta, which can be expressed through a number of physical reactions such as crying, smiling, cheering, and even vocalizing “aww” (Knutsen, 2017). The same study also demonstrated variation in the amount of empathy participants reported with their reactions to cute stimuli; participants who reported higher levels of empathy also reported higher sensitivity to cuteness and empathic concern, demonstrating a reflection of not only the evolutionary advantage of cuteness previously discussed, but also the ways in which perception of cuteness might be related to other social competencies in humans. A later study further suggests that kama muta serves as a foundation of why cuteness matters, serving as a core for cuteness theories by placing communal relationships at the heart of the research.
Cuteness in Research: An Ongoing Development
The concept of cuteness in the realm of research begs the question, how does one even study cuteness? Is there a way to quantify or otherwise solidify an abstract experience like cuteness into a concrete construct that can be scientifically explained?
One study explored the validity of measures previously used to study cuteness in different contexts (online, offline, social media); particularly, they looked at the Kama Muta Multiplex Scale (KAMMUS Two), which has gained a reputation for being a measure of kama muta, as well as the Cute Content of the Social Media Emotions Annotation Guide (SMEmo-Cute Content) as a developed measure of cute content to validate measures (Golonka et al., 2023). The results of this paper report variable sensitivity to cute content as well as varied results of cuteness indicators, meaning that the measures that previous researchers have used might not have been as robust as possible. Furthermore, the paper also suggests potential differences between experiences that evoke cute emotional reactions, and highlights a particular need for metrics to measure data in social media contexts.
The universality of cuteness as a concept is also called into question when one discusses it in the context of research. Some research reports gender differences in the effects of cuteness regarding consumer risk preferences (Li & Yan, 2021). These gender differences can be argued as a cultural difference between genders; however, another paper looking at attitudes towards cuteness suggests a universal aspect to the feelings of cuteness perception (Nittono et al., 2021). While singular papers do not demonstrate a hugely significant rift in the research community, this does suggest that researchers are coming to variable outcomes for similar topics. Furthermore, the potential confound of gender in cute studies suggests a need for deeper research exploring the interplay of gender and cuteness as constructs that reign over our societies.
Conclusion
This piece has been a very short introduction to the world of research on cuteness. Scholars have approached the concept through various different lenses: biological, evolutionary, psychological, neurological, social, cultural, and anthropological. Cuteness, like other aesthetics, is embedded into our species and our societies and constantly influences the way that we act and think. The next piece in this series, exploring cuteness from different perspectives, will cover the concept of cuteness and how it relates to gender.
Works Cited
Golonka, E. M., Jones, K. M., Sheehan, P., Pandža, N. B., Paletz, S. B. F., Rytting, C. A., & Johns, M. A. (2023). The construct of cuteness: A validity study for measuring content and evoked emotions on social media. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1068373
Hoyt, L. (2024). The Evolutionary Psychology of Cuteness: Manipulating Eye-to-Face proportions in stuffed animals to better understand why some things are cuter than others [Honors Project]. In G. Geher, State University of New York at New Paltz.
Knutsen Steinnes, K., Blomster Lyshol, J. K. Zickfeld, J. H., Schubert, T., & Seibt, B. (2024). Kama Muta: The Cuteness Emotion, in Al-Shawaf, L., & Shackelford, T. K. (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Evolution and the Emotions, 339–356. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197544754.013.16
Kringelback, M. (2016). How cute things hijack our brains and drive behaviour.
Li, Y., & Yan, D. (2021). Cuteness inspires men’s risk seeking but women’s risk aversion. Journal of Business Research, 126, 239–249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.12.066
Nittono, H., Fukushima, M., Yano, A., & Moriya, H. (2012). The power of kawaii: viewing cute images promotes a careful behavior and narrows attentional focus. PLoS ONE, 7(9), e46362.
Nittono, H., Lieber-Milo, S., & Dale, J. P. (2021). Cross-Cultural comparisons of the cute and related concepts in Japan, the United States, and Israel. SAGE Open, 11(1), 215824402098873. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020988730
Sanctum Med + Wellness. (2024, April 12). Beyond Beauty: How Aesthetics Contribute to Mental health.
Sherman, G. D., Haidt, J., & Coan, J. A. (2009). Viewing cute images increases behavioral carefulness. Emotion, 9(2), 282–286.
Stavropoulos, K. K. M., & Alba, L. A. (2018b). “It’s so cute I could crush it!”: Understanding neural mechanisms of cute aggression. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00300
