
The new science of cute - pmcpinto
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/19/kumamon-the-new-science-of-cute
======
doctorstupid
Japan is an hierarchical society in which the pressures flowing from the top
can build to unbearable levels near the bottom. The outlook for many is quite
bleak, with an unthinkably small possibility of escape from one’s allotted
role. Many live in conditions that may be best described as human storage.
Cute things offer an escape into a fantasy world devoid of life’s
powerlessness in a manner compatible with consumerism. The aggressive and
masculine traits valued near the top are sometimes too confrontational for
most, resulting in a proliferation of cute, comforting and non-aggressive
symbols throughout society. Even police boxes have cute mascots to soften the
intimidation of their presence.

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agentgt
I vaguely remember reading somewhere how domestication brings about cuteness
in animals. When animals are breed to be less aggressive they look more like
babies. We are not even sure if humans are naturally selecting the traits (as
baby like features seem less aggressive) or that just inherently happens when
aggression is removed (ie lower testosterone would cause less maturity).

I believe the study on domesticating foxes showed this. As they removed
aggressive foxes from the gene pool the left overs were unbelievable "cute"
with soft fur, round eyes, etc. Seriously a domesticated fox is a pretty
animal.

Of course I believe there is an exception to this of the house hold cat.
Supposedly cats are technically not domesticated (I'll find link on this
shortly but yes this mainly a joke as domestication is likely a multi-faceted
continuum).

~~~
saint_fiasco
Domestication brings about neoteny. Adult domesticated animals maintain
appearance and behaviors that wild animals only have when they are young.

Young mammals are very cute to us, possibly because we are mammals too and
inherit our cute-sense from a common mammal ancestor.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoteny#In_domestic_animals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoteny#In_domestic_animals)

~~~
theophrastus
There is even an old theory that modern day humans are neotenous products of a
proto-ape-man. A list usually follows of those characteristics that humans
share with infant modern apes: less hair, larger head to body ratio, shorter
arms, less muzzle, etc. Then 'futurists' grab hold of that and imagine current
human babies as our adult future; is that how the bug-eyed hairless 'gray
alien'[1] arises, or the 2001 "star child"?

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_alien](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_alien)

~~~
amyjess
I have to wonder if this is partially responsible for the "Asians are smarter
than everyone else" stereotype, given that Asians have more neotenous features
than other races on average.

------
vanderZwan
> _In a study at the University of Michigan in 2012, visual information expert
> Sookyung Cho asked subjects “to design a cute rectangle by adjusting the
> size, proportion, roundness, rotation, and color of the figure”. What she
> found supported the idea that “smallness, roundness, tiltedness, and
> lightness of color can serve as determinants of perceived cuteness in
> artifact design”. It mattered, she found, whether the person designing the
> rectangle was in the USA or South Korea. Cuteness is nothing if not
> culturally specific, and that itself has become a rich focus of inquiry._

> [...]

> _Teddy bears exist because the night is dark and long and at some point your
> parents have to go to bed and leave you. There is real comfort in cuteness._

> _“Filling in an emotional need is exactly where kawaii plays a significant
> role,” writes Christine R Yano, a professor of anthropology at the
> University of Hawaii at Manoa and the author of Pink Globalization: Hello
> Kitty’s trek across the Pacific. “Even in America, journalist Nicholas
> Kristof has written of an ‘empathy gap’ in today’s society,” states Yano.
> “He points to the place of objects that may be considered promoters of
> ‘happiness’, ‘solace’, ‘comfort’. When a society needs to heal, it seeks
> comfort in the familiar. And often the familiar may reside in ‘cute’.
> Witness the use of teddy bears as sources of comfort for firefighters in the
> wake of NYC’s 9-11. So I see kawaii things as holding the potential as
> empathy generators.”_

I wonder how these two points tie in to the modern obsession with cats. They
seem to fill a real need people have, but speaking as someone who is
unaffected by cat-cuteness (which is weird because I generally am very
susceptable to cute things) and who is treated as a freak of nature by many, I
think there's also a certain aspect of trying to conform to societal
expectations.

PS: The Guardian aritcle is a reprint (republish? reshare?) of an article at
Mosaic[0], which features a lot more pictures.

[0] [http://mosaicscience.com/story/cuteness-japan-
kawaii](http://mosaicscience.com/story/cuteness-japan-kawaii)

~~~
douche
Cats are furry, murderous assholes

[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cats_actually_kill](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cats_actually_kill)

[http://www.kittycams.uga.edu/index.html](http://www.kittycams.uga.edu/index.html)

~~~
Kristine1975
That's what makes them cute, though.

~~~
ZenoArrow
Eh? IMO it's their appearance and style that makes them cute, not their
violent tendencies! I never hear two cats scrapping in an alleyway and think
'how cute!'.

~~~
bitwize
On the contrary, many of cats' predator characteristics make them cute -- for
example, their large, forward-facing eyes, the way they pounce on and bat at
things (the little ass wiggle they do just before striking is particularly
adorable), their little fangs (giving a character cat fangs is an anime way of
conveying "mischievous cuteness"), etc.

They are also fairly intelligent. Intelligence can be cute, and the cuteness
of intelligence is _enduring_. Rabbits are cute to look at, but make for
boring pets; cats and dogs can fascinate and charm us for years and quickly
become considered friends and the near-equals of humans. And don't tell me
that a cat who's figured out how to operate doorknobs or lightswitches isn't
adorable.

A lot of this has to do with the fact that we are also predators and these
characteristics remind us of ourselves (in particular, our young).

~~~
ZenoArrow
> "their large, forward-facing eyes"

Appearance.

> "the way they pounce on and bat at things"

Style.

> "their little fangs"

IMO, fangs aren't exactly a cute feature. Cats aren't cute all the time. This
isn't a cute image of a cat IMO, for example...

[http://baddogneedsrottenhome.com/images/emails/55c8ce1c28a9b...](http://baddogneedsrottenhome.com/images/emails/55c8ce1c28a9b.jpg)

> "They are also fairly intelligent. Intelligence can be cute, and the
> cuteness of intelligence is enduring. Rabbits are cute to look at, but make
> for boring pets; cats and dogs can fascinate and charm us for years and
> quickly become considered friends and the near-equals of humans. And don't
> tell me that a cat who's figured out how to operate doorknobs or
> lightswitches isn't adorable."

Again, style.

It's possible to see a cat's playfulness and intelligence as separate from its
roots as a predator. I don't think we actively have 'killer' in mind when we
see a cat look cute or do something cute.

~~~
amyjess
Cats' playing is straight-up hunting practice. If you pay attention to a kitty
playing with something, you can tell that they're practicing how to stalk,
hunt, kill, and eviscerate their prey.

And it's _adorable_. I used to tell my parents' kitty "You're such a cute
widdwe pwedator, yes you are!". Sometimes while she was playing, other times
after watching her hunt and kill a lizard in the backyard. There wasn't much
difference between her behavior between those times.

~~~
ZenoArrow
The point I'm making is that the cuteness is not determined by their desire to
kill, it's their appearance and style that makes them cute.

If being a predator was a deciding factor in making them cute, then other
predators would automatically be cute too. Perhaps you think all animals are
cute, but I don't think of sharks, snakes, crocodiles, etc... as cute.

In other words, IMO it's not what they do that makes an animal cute, it's the
way that they do it (and/or their appearance).

------
jhbadger
"He is almost regarded as a living entity, a kind of fun ursine household god
(it is perhaps significant that the very first licensed Kumamon product was a
Buddhist shrine emblazoned with his face)."

Things like this fascinate me about Japan. How is this understood? Is it a
"South Park" style sacrilegious parody, or do Japanese Buddhists actually find
this totally acceptable?

~~~
po
I am by no means an expert, but after living here for a while I have had to
adjust my conception of what sacrelegious means. I think my understanding of
it (after growing up in the US and primarily being exposed to christian and
jewish customs) was 'pious sincerity' or 'seriousness'. In Japan, religious
practice is not as _serious_ as I was used to, even if many people are very
serious about observing.

There's not as much value placed in physical artifacts. Historic buildings get
razed (pour one out for the Hotel Okura), earthquakes destroy cities… people
move on. The culture needs to be respected and honored but new artifacts will
always arise which honor that line of culture. You respect your ancestors by
however you show respect.. bowing, keeeling, building a shrine out of
discarded PS2's or whatever. If it is heartfelt, then how you do it mostly
reflects on you.

So associating a mascot (which is a totally accepted cultural tool) with a
religious artifact isn't considered bad because there is no negative
association with it. People love kumamon! Anyway, that's my view on it. I am
sure I have a lot to learn still.

As an aside: Even the police like to get in on the cute. Note the mascot at
the bottom of the tokyo police website. Pepo-kun is all over Tokyo to make the
police more approachable. He's named after the sound that police cars make:
"peee-poh-peee-poh"

[http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/multilingual/english/ind...](http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/multilingual/english/index.html)

~~~
kens
To add to your comment on the transience of historical buildings, the Ise
Jingu shrine gets torn down and rebuilt every 20 years, and this has been
happening for 1300 years!

[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-japanese-
shrin...](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-japanese-shrine-has-
been-torn-down-and-rebuilt-every-20-years-for-the-past-millennium-575558/)

Also, according to Freakonomics, Japanese houses are "disposable", commonly
torn down and rebuilt. [http://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-are-japanese-
homes-dispo...](http://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-are-japanese-homes-
disposable-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast-3/)

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dschiptsov
Cuteness is a look of a healthy (lack of abnormalities) child, and youth in
general.

Beauty is youth + health (average face = lack of deformities) for all species
- good genes, just reached reproductive age (with all necessary markers).

Sexual attractiveness is a bit more complicated - species specific markers of
youth, health, good genes (parasite resistance, foraging, etc) and social
status.

Nothing to see here. Humans aren't descendants of gods, they are still mere
animals.

~~~
drpgq
Sexual dimorphism is also important for sexual attractiveness.

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kevinSuttle
I wrote about this a few years ago, with the goal to answer the question of
"what is cute, really?" [http://uxmag.com/articles/beyond-
emotion](http://uxmag.com/articles/beyond-emotion)

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homero
I wonder if zenbo flopped [https://zenbo.asus.com](https://zenbo.asus.com)

~~~
dexwiz
Why do manufacturers need to put big goofy eyes on robots? I am perfectly fine
with an astro-mech style robot that is obviously a robot.

~~~
vanderZwan
Well you're not wrong for liking it, but you also are (presumably) a techie of
some form, be that programming, electronics or whatever. That implies a pretty
strong aesthetic bias that does not represent the average person.

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return0
Isn't this another symptom of infantilization of culture? Similarly to how the
most successful movies are about wizards and magical rings.

~~~
Chris2048
infantilization of culture?

Why are wizards and fantasy not allowed for adults?

~~~
zdkl
"All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the
comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach."

Replace propaganda with marketing, PR, journalism...

