If the participant believes an object is Kawaii, then it will result in a behaviour to want, obtain, care and protect that object (measured by how much they will pay more for that item (e.g. T-shirt)).

Ever watch a cute puppy or kitten videos on YouTube or go to a petstore and can’t resist but want to say……”gnaaaaaaaawhhh”?  There’s a word for that!

“Kawaii” is Japanese for “Cute” but it is much more than that!  Kawaii is an emotion and varies between people but when we see something that we think is Kawaii, our mind, heart and emotions cause us to behave in similar ways even though we may have different cultures, backgrounds and education.  No one is taught what is Kawaii and not, this means Kawaii is an emotion that is part of being a Human!

Kawaii has several practical purposes:

1. Being able to quickly decide if something is Kawaii or not is a survival instinct.  Something that is NOT Kawaii can be a sign of danger and a warning to not come any closer.
2. Kawaii is useful for survival as being “kawaii” will encourage others to protect it (think of when you see a Kitten vs. a Spider).
3. If you believe something is Kawaii, it means you have a stronger desire to own, care for or bond with that animal, person or object.   That higher desire to care and protect is used by baby’s to ensure survival. 
4. Businesses can be Kawaii to encourage behaviours such as people paying more for merchandise, products and experiences. 

What makes something Kawaii?

As People, we use a lot of data and process it very quickly to decide if something is Kawaii.  Common factors of kawaii are: 

• Object head to body size ratio
• Face shape and characteristics (Smile, eye shape, recessed chin, mouth size, forehead size)

How does the head to body size of an object impact if it is Kawaii?

A smaller head to body ratio is more Kawaii.  For example, a baby’s head to body ratio approx. 1:3 or 1:4 ratio (that means that the baby’s body is 4x bigger than the head) compared to an adult head to body ratio is approx. 1:7 or 1:8. 

Controlled Variables: 

• Same pictures
• Same genre of pictures (cartoon)

Responding Variables: 

• How adults and students measure a picture as kawaii
• How boys and girls measure a picture as kawaii
• How kawaii encourages us to pay more for merchandise. 

Manipulated Variables: 

• Gender of participants
• Type of participant (adult or student)

1. Find approximately 30 participants (approx. equal mix between males and females, adults and students)
2. Ask them to fill out the Standardized Survey
3. Record data in Google Sheets to automatically calculate:
   1. Average Kawaii score per picture per type of participant
   2. Average amount willing to pay per picture per type of participant
4. Make graphs based on data
5. Analyze data and draw conclusions based on responses

From my research, I observed:

1. Pictures that were expected to have the highest expected Kawaii scores (Baby cow, New Mickey and Battle Cat) also had the highest actual scores.  Similarly, pictures that were expected to have the lowest kawaii scores (Old Mickey and Jafar) had the lowest actual scores.
    
2. For females, the Kawaii scores were closely correlated with their willingness to pay.
    
3. For males, the results were more complex:

• For Adult males, there was correlation between Kawaii and willingness to pay with the exception of the “cow”. The cow had a very low willingness to pay despite a high Kawaii score.  This low willingness to pay for the “cow” could be due social pressure where males do not want to appear weak and while they like the Cow picture, they are NOT willing to pay an amount that isn’t practical.
• Student Males were willing to more for pictures with lower Kawaii (Old Mickey).  This is the opposite social pressure of paying for a cute picture. A “creepy” picture could be associated with being a less scared or stronger male and therefore a higher willingness to pay.
• The impact of social pressure for males and their willingness to pay was similar to the results from researcher papers published by researcher Hiroshi Nittono (“A behavioural science framework for understanding Kawaii”)
   

There are several ways to use the results of my research, this experiment helps People:

1. Understand how objects can be changed to look more or less Kawaii.
2. Understand the connection between Kawaii and our behaviours.  Specifically our desire to protect objects, animals or people that are Kawaii.
3. Understand how Kawaii can be used to influence our behaviours that can be used by businesses to improve revenue by targeting merchandise to certain types of people (adults vs. kids, males vs. females). 

During my experiment, there results, analysis and comments from participants indicated that there were some sources of error, specifically:

1. The Battle Cat was considered Kawaii by many participants but the picture was only black and white so and impacted people’s decisions and behaviour. 
2. Familiarity of the character impacted participant scores.  People are familiar with Disney movie’s and know that Mickey Mouse is a protagonist (hero) and Jafar an antagonist (villan).  This impacted their Kawaii scores.
3. We had 30 participants, the survey results could be more accurate with more participants.

• Micu, A (2023). What Makes Things Cute? Mind and Brain
• Kringelbach, M. How Cute Things Hijack Our Brains And Drive Behaviours. THE CONVERSATION
• E11even (2022). The Science of Cuteness. www.Medium.com 
• Nittono, H (2010). A Behavioral Science Framework for Understanding Kawaii. www.ResearchGate.Net  
• No Author. (2021). Awwwwww: The Science of Animal Cuteness swv.org/learn/blog/awwwwww-science-animal-cuteness 
• Old Mickey Mouse- Snopes.com
• Jafar- Dreamlight Valley Wiki
• Battle Cat-World of Battle Cats
• Baby Cow- Pintrest
• New Mickey Mouse-Great Characters Wiki

I want to say thank you to are: My dad, My mom, Mr. Baillie