Too Cute for Words: Cuteness Evokes the Kama Muta Emotion and Motivates Communal Sharing

Abstract

Infantile attributes, such as large eyes, chubby cheeks, and a small nose and mouth, comprise the visual Kindchenschema and are perceived as cute. People are highly sensitive to such features as they stimulate approach and care, which is triggered by an emotional response. This emotional response to cuteness has generally been ignored as a research topic and has consequently remained unidentified. Attempting to address this research gap, the current thesis postulates that cuteness typically evokes kama muta; a social-relational emotion that often is labeled in English as moved, touched, and heartwarming. What evokes kama muta is sudden intensification of a communal sharing relationship. Hence, it is further hypothesized that this theorized kama muta response to cuteness is mediated by observing an affectionate interaction (i.e., intensification of communal sharing). These predictions were experimentally investigated in two respective studies. Study 1 revealed that cute videos evoked significantly more kama muta than non-cute videos (p < .001), while Study 2 found that the combination of cuteness and communal sharing interaction evoked significantly more kama muta than cuteness alone, as measured by bodily sensations (p = .005) and subjective feelings of being moved (p < .001). In sum, Kindchenschema and signs of communal sharing evoke kama muta, which people label in this context as perception of cuteness.