University of Connecticut OpenCommons@UConn Doctoral Dissertations University of Connecticut Graduate School 1-3-2018 Cuteness and Appeals: Unleashing Prosocial Emotions Katherine (Kivy) Weeks University of Connecticut - Storrs, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Weeks, Katherine (Kivy), "Cuteness and Appeals: Unleashing Prosocial Emotions" (2018). Doctoral Dissertations. 1697. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/1697 Cuteness and Appeals: Unleashing Prosocial Emotions Katherine (Kivy) Weeks University of Connecticut, 2018 Abstract The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the implications of cuteness in marketing communication. It uses babyfacedness research as the basis for evoking a cuteness response, and introduces a nurturance scale to measure the emotional outcome of exposure. In the process, it uncovered problems with existing conceptualizations of attractiveness, and demonstrated how using nurturance, aesthetic judgement and sexual judgement measures better explains aggregate emotional outcome (e.g. positive/negative emotion) from exposure to facial images. In particular, it shows how nurturance and sexual judgements have antagonistic effects on aggregate emotion. Additionally, it details how babyfaced manipulations influence both the perceived age and gender of a portrait, and the effects such perceptions may have in communication contexts. The structural equation models uncover multiple moderators with age of stimuli image, cute manipulations (babyfaced), and participant sex all serving to significantly change some of the modeled relationships. Perhaps most interestingly, it finishes by showing how cuteness and nurturance may increase desire to touch products, and thus positively effect attitudes toward advertisements. This dissertation accomplishes this with two online, survey-based experiments that were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The first, a pilot study, having a two (low/high babyfacedness) x two (infant/adult stimuli) format. The second study expanded on the pilot study, similarly employed a two (low/high babyfacedness) x two (toddler/adult stimuli) x Katherine (Kivy) Weeks – University of Connecticut, 2018 two (low/high haptic advertisement) experiment. Both experiments used female stimuli images as they were expected to evoke a greater cuteness response. Keywords: Cute, Cuteness, Nurturance, Nurture, Adorable, Emotion, Attractiveness, Attractive, Age, Babyface, Kindchenschema, Advertisement, Mass Communication, Mass Media, Attitude Toward Advertisement, Purchase Intention, Consumer Behavior, Purchase Intention Running head: CUTENESS AND APPEALS: UNLEASHING PROSOCIAL EMOTIONS Cuteness and Appeals: Unleashing Prosocial Emotions Katherine (Kivy) Weeks B.S., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2004 M.B.A., University of Connecticut, 2009 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut 2018 i CUTENESS AND APPEALS: UNLEASHING PROSOCIAL EMOTIONS APPROVAL PAGE Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Cuteness and Appeals: Unleashing Prosocial Emotions Presented by Katherine (Kivy) Weeks, M.B.A. Major Advisor: _________________________________________________________________ Ross Buck Associate Advisor: ______________________________________________________________ Carolyn Lin Associate Advisor: ______________________________________________________________ John Christensen University of Connecticut 2018 ii CUTENESS AND APPEALS: UNLEASHING PROSOCIAL EMOTIONS Acknowledgements I would like to thank several people without whom this dissertation, and hence my degree, would never have been completed. First, my husband who was endlessly patient and supportive. Second, my siblings who were sympathetic ears when needed, and heeded requests NOT to ask when I would be done with my degree. Third, my committee, who were patient as temporary personal concerns slowed my progress, and my interests veered in directions and areas that were not well trodden within the discipline. Fourth, my classmates who were allies, supporters, and inspirations. Finally, the department at large, which was responsible for many important lessons learned both in, and out of the classroom. Thank you all for your part in my journey. iii CUTENESS AND APPEALS: UNLEASHING PROSOCIAL EMOTIONS INDEX CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ..................................................................... 4 Cuteness and Evolution........................................................................................... 4 Evolutionary function ................................................................................. 4 Evolved mechanisms .................................................................................. 6 Previous explication .................................................................................... 8 Attention ............................................................................................................... 11 Emotion ................................................................................................................. 12 Emotion in marketing communication...................................................... 15 Babyface to cute ........................................................................................ 19 Haptic .................................................................................................................... 20 Attractiveness ........................................................................................................ 22 CHAPTER 3: PILOT STUDY ................................................................................................... 29 Proposed Model .................................................................................................... 29 Procedure .............................................................................................................. 30 Stimuli Materials ................................................................................................... 31 Measures & Results .............................................................................................. 32 Demographic Variables ............................................................................ 33 Nurturance................................................................................................. 33 Attractive................................................................................................... 35 Emotion ..................................................................................................... 37 Differences in nurturance .......................................................................... 38 iv CUTENESS AND APPEALS: UNLEASHING PROSOCIAL EMOTIONS Need for touch........................................................................................... 39 Haptic terms .............................................................................................. 40 Desire to touch .......................................................................................... 40 Model ........................................................................................................ 41 Discussion ............................................................................................................. 45 Limitations ................................................................................................ 45 Contribution .............................................................................................. 46 Research Implications ............................................................................... 47 CHAPTER 4: TPCS - OVERVIEW ......................................................................................... 49 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 49 Theoretical Framework Continued: Marketing Communication .......................... 50 Overview of Study: Theoretical Framework and Hypotheses .............................. 53 Positive emotions ...................................................................................... 54 Theory of reasoned action ......................................................................... 55 Hypotheses Tested by Main Dissertation Study ....................................... 57 Experimental Manipulations ................................................................................. 57 Cuteness .................................................................................................... 57 Haptic ........................................................................................................ 60 CHAPTER 5: TPCS - METHODS AND MEASURES ........................................................... 62 Method .................................................................................................................. 62 Measures ............................................................................................................... 63 Demographic ............................................................................................. 64 Scales from the pilot study ........................................................................ 64 v CUTENESS AND APPEALS: UNLEASHING PROSOCIAL EMOTIONS Emotional