Why are children, who are supposed to make adults think they are cute and increase their need for care, to be sacrificed as abused children?In this group, we conducted a series of experiments to determine whether factors other than appearance (information on personality) are related to children's cuteness, impressions, and need for care.

　In Experiment 1, 20 women in their 40s to 72s participated, and after evaluating cuteness and impressions based on photographs of the children's faces, personality information was added to the children's faces, and cuteness and impressions were evaluated again. bottom.As a result, even if they had the same appearance, the evaluation of cuteness increased for children with favorable personalities, and the evaluation of cuteness decreased for children with unfavorable personalities.Furthermore, when cute feelings decreased, nursing needs also decreased.

　In Experiment 2, 20 women in their 40s to 108s participated and were divided into three groups based on their original cuteness. evaluated.As a result, regardless of the original cuteness of appearance, evaluations of cuteness, friendliness, and cleverness increased under favorable personality conditions, as in Experiment 3, while each evaluation decreased under unfavorable personality conditions. .In addition, the negative effect of unfavorable personality information continued to affect the evaluation of cuteness one week later, regardless of the initial cuteness.

　This research can be said to be the result of experiments that prove that "cuteness is not just about appearance."For example, it has been suggested that caregivers who tend to perceive their children's behavior negatively feel that their children are cute, and that their desire to take care of them decreases over time.

Paper information:[PLOS ONE] Personality descriptions influence perceived cuteness of children and nursing motivation toward them