Why do we find videos of kittens and puppies cute? Why do we go “aww” when we see babies? Why do cute videos make us happier? To answer these questions, we go to the Japanese word that is synonymous with the word cute: “kawaii.” And because it is a Japanese word, we also need some help from a Japanese person.
Enter Hiroshi Nittono, the director of the Cognitive Psychophysiology Laboratory at Osaka University.
Nittono is a kawaii researcher—that is, he studies the Japanese concept of cuteness and how we experience it. His research has found that looking at kawaii images, like photos of puppies or kittens (or baby alpacas, perhaps?) helps us focus and pay attention to detail, improves our attention, and leads to better task performance.
“Kawaii things not only make us happier but also affect our behavior,” Nittono’s original 2012 study reported.
To summarize what he said, kawaii is the “cute emotion” that we experience when we encounter something that makes us feel said emotion. This emotion makes us act tenderly and protectively towards the kawaii object. It is also worth noting that the concept of kawaii is not limited to the visual sense.
More about this over at Wired.
The more we know!
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