Too Cute for Words: Cuteness Evokes the Heartwarming Emotion of Kama Muta.

ABSTRACT: A configuration of infantile attributes including a large head, large eyes, with a small nose and mouth low on the head comprise the visual baby schema or Kindchenschema that English speakers call "cute." In contrast to the stimulus gestalt that evokes it, the evoked emotional response to cuteness has been little studied, perhaps because the emotion has no specific name in English, Norwegian, or German. We hypothesize that cuteness typically evokes kama muta, a social-relational emotion that in other contexts is often labeled in English as being moved or touched, heartwarming, nostalgia, patriotic feeling, being touched by the Spirit, the feels, etcetera. What evokes kama muta is sudden intensification of a communal sharing (CS) relationship, either CS between the person and another, or CS

SUBMITTER: Steinnes KK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6405428 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature