Cutebaby 2015 series#

Students were asked to identify a series of stimuli displayed on a screen while they were timed. “This finding suggests that viewing cute images makes participants behave more deliberately and perform tasks with greater time and care,” writes Nittono.Īdditional findings indicate that cute images specifically improve focus on details. The students who had looked at adult animal photos showed no change in performance and completed the task in the same amount of time in both trials. Interestingly, they engaged in the task at a slower, more deliberate pace after viewing the photos. The students who had looked at cute baby animal photos significantly improved their performance on the second round. After playing one round of the game, half of the students looked at a series of seven images of cute puppies and kittens while the others viewed pictures of adult dogs and cats. The students used tweezers to remove tiny plastic body parts from holes in the body of a “patient” without touching the sides of the holes. In the first experiment from Nittono’s team, a group of 48 college students were asked to play a game similar to Operation. The baby schema can activate a number of innate processes in people, including smiling and positive affect and other nurturing behavior, but research suggests that cute images may also have an impact on attention and perception.

Research has long shown that people are predisposed to respond to “cute” baby-like features–a large head, a high protruding forehead, and large eyes-known as the “baby schema.” Baby animals also have baby schema characteristics, which helps explain why we think puppies and kittens are cuter than dogs and cats. “This study shows that viewing cute things improves subsequent performance in tasks that require behavioral carefulness, possibly by narrowing the breadth of attentional focus,” Nittono and colleagues write. Led by researcher Hiroshi Nittono, the team conducted three experiments with 132 university students and concluded that cute images may facilitate improved performance on detail-oriented tasks that require concentration.

“Cute” pictures of baby animals, including puppies and kittens, can have powerful effects on attention and concentration, psychological scientists at Hiroshima University in Japan have found.