Women Approach Cute Objects but Avoid Cute Adult Female Faces: Verification of Correlation between Body Sway and Cuteness Rating

Perceived cuteness motivates people to approach cute objects, but no evidence exists of unconscious approach behavior toward objects. Given the unconscious responses associated with cuteness perception, an unconscious drive to physically approach cute objects is likely to occur. However, approach behavior may or may not occur depending on whether or not the perceived cute object is an adult, a baby, or a non-human. In this study, we recruited 24 participants and conducted a correlation study between cuteness ratings and body sway to examine whether or not the approach response is dependent on perceived cuteness. Results showed that the approach or avoidance response to cute objects was observed only in women. For babies, the approach response occurred regardless of the degree of cuteness, but for adult female faces, the cuter the face, the more the avoidance response occurred. For non-human images, the cuter the image, the more the approach response occurred only in early period of observation time. These results suggest that cuteness perception controls physical distance differently depending on the target of evaluation.