Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

kawaii science

The New York Times ran an interesting story last week about the science of “cuteness” — that ineffable quality that makes people “awww” and coo and generally melt in the presence of it. (“The Cute Factor” - 01/03/06)

Cute cues are those that indicate extreme youth, vulnerability, harmlessness and need, scientists say, and attending to them closely makes good Darwinian sense. As a species whose youngest members are so pathetically helpless they can’t lift their heads to suckle without adult supervision, human beings must be wired to respond quickly and gamely to any and all signs of infantile desire.

The human cuteness detector is set at such a low bar, researchers said, that it sweeps in and deems cute practically anything remotely resembling a human baby or a part thereof … The greater the number of cute cues that an animal or object happens to possess, or the more exaggerated the signals may be, the louder and more italicized are the squeals provoked…

Even as they say a cute tooth has rational roots, scientists admit they are just beginning to map its subtleties and source. New studies suggest that cute images stimulate the same pleasure centers of the brain aroused by sex, a good meal or psychoactive drugs like cocaine, which could explain why everybody in the panda house wore a big grin.

At the same time, said Denis Dutton, a philosopher of art at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, the rapidity and promiscuity of the cute response makes the impulse suspect, readily overridden by the angry sense that one is being exploited or deceived.

The little guy above is Mini Barn Owl, a tiny stuffed animal I purchased in Tucson one summer because I couldn’t resist that “so cute!” impulse. I actually don’t know what kind of owl he is, but, for whatever reason, “Mini Barn Owl” seemed to fit.