A facial EMG study of differentiation in feelings of “kawaii”
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1
Hiroshima University, Graduate school of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Japan
Aims: “Kawaii” is one of the most frequently used adjectives in modern Japanese. It is often translated into English as “cute,” but its meaning appears to go beyond that. Baby schema has been thought to be a key stimulus feature that triggers the feelings of cuteness, but the word “kawaii” is also used for other types of items that are seemingly irrelevant to baby schema, making the definition of the word confusing even for Japanese people. In this study, we compared facial electromyographic (EMG) responses to two types of pictures described as kawaii to see whether both types of stimuli elicited similar patterns of activity. Method: Twenty female university students were asked to view various colored photographs for six seconds each. Facial EMGs were measured over the regions of the zygomaticus major and the corrugator supercilii. After viewing each picture, the participants rated it on several scales (e.g., kawaii, pleasant, exciting). Based on the photographic objects and mean rating scores, three categories of pictures were selected by controlling valence and arousal: kawaii items with baby schema (human and animal babies), kawaii items without baby schema (flowers, sweets, and dresses), and neutral items that had lower scores with regard to kawaii ratings (both animals and inanimate things). Results: Zygomaticus major activity increased for both kawaii items with and without baby schema. On the other hand, corrugator supercilii activity reduced reliably only for items with baby schema. Conclusions: Even when levels of subjective pleasantness and arousal are equivalent, kawaii items with baby schema produce greater affective facial responses. The findings suggest that kawaii is not a unitary concept but a generic term for a positive emotion associated with approach motivation, and that baby schema is a strong elicitor of emotional expressions.
Keywords:
kawaii,
cuteness,
baby schema,
facial electromyography,
feminin culture
Conference:
ASP2013 - 23rd Annual meeting of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Wollongong, Australia, 20 Nov - 22 Nov, 2013.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Emotion
Citation:
Ihara
N and
Nittono
H
(2013). A facial EMG study of differentiation in feelings of “kawaii”.
Conference Abstract:
ASP2013 - 23rd Annual meeting of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.213.00032
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Received:
24 Oct 2013;
Published Online:
05 Nov 2013.
*
Correspondence:
Ms. Namiha Ihara, Hiroshima University, Graduate school of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima, Japan, namiha-ihara@hiroshima-u.ac.jp