Miniaturization as a relevant variable in determining cuteness

Abstract

The question of what, exactly, makes a child “cute” began with paper, wherein he postulated a number of craniophysical traits which rendered a child “cute” with the resulting appeal and caretaking behavior on the observer. These facial traits became the focus of research. However, there is another trait that renders someone (or something) as “cute” and it is size. Children are essentially miniature adults. A total of 36 Ss of ages 5–86 were recruited to judge whether they considered inanimate objects to be “cute”. It was found in this study that if an inanimate object is a miniature version of another larger object, it was judged to be “cute”.

KEY WORDS:

• miniature
• Kindchenschema
• children
• attractiveness
• Lorenz
• caretaking
• cute
• cuteness
• infants

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ETHICAL STANDARDS

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.