You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output.
Click here to find out more.
X Demographics
Mendeley readers
Attention Score in Context
| Title |
The Power of Kawaii: Viewing Cute Images Promotes a Careful Behavior and Narrows Attentional Focus
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
PLOS ONE, September 2012
|
| DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0046362 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Hiroshi Nittono, Michiko Fukushima, Akihiro Yano, Hiroki Moriya |
| Abstract |
Kawaii (a Japanese word meaning "cute") things are popular because they produce positive feelings. However, their effect on behavior remains unclear. In this study, three experiments were conducted to examine the effects of viewing cute images on subsequent task performance. In the first experiment, university students performed a fine motor dexterity task before and after viewing images of baby or adult animals. Performance indexed by the number of successful trials increased after viewing cute images (puppies and kittens; M ± SE=43.9 ± 10.3% improvement) more than after viewing images that were less cute (dogs and cats; 11.9 ± 5.5% improvement). In the second experiment, this finding was replicated by using a non-motor visual search task. Performance improved more after viewing cute images (15.7 ± 2.2% improvement) than after viewing less cute images (1.4 ± 2.1% improvement). Viewing images of pleasant foods was ineffective in improving performance (1.2 ± 2.1%). In the third experiment, participants performed a global-local letter task after viewing images of baby animals, adult animals, and neutral objects. In general, global features were processed faster than local features. However, this global precedence effect was reduced after viewing cute images. Results show that participants performed tasks requiring focused attention more carefully after viewing cute images. This is interpreted as the result of a narrowed attentional focus induced by the cuteness-triggered positive emotion that is associated with approach motivation and the tendency toward systematic processing. For future applications, cute objects may be used as an emotion elicitor to induce careful behavioral tendencies in specific situations, such as driving and office work. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 2,284 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | 300 | 13% |
| United States | 248 | 11% |
| United Kingdom | 184 | 8% |
| Canada | 47 | 2% |
| France | 27 | 1% |
| Australia | 21 | <1% |
| Thailand | 20 | <1% |
| Germany | 19 | <1% |
| Belgium | 10 | <1% |
| Other | 197 | 9% |
| Unknown | 1211 | 53% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 2075 | 91% |
| Scientists | 114 | 5% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 54 | 2% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 40 | 2% |
| Unknown | 1 | <1% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 490 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | 11 | 2% |
| United States | 7 | 1% |
| United Kingdom | 6 | 1% |
| Germany | 5 | 1% |
| Hungary | 2 | <1% |
| Netherlands | 2 | <1% |
| Chile | 1 | <1% |
| Sweden | 1 | <1% |
| Korea, Republic of | 1 | <1% |
| Other | 5 | 1% |
| Unknown | 449 | 92% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 79 | 16% |
| Student > Master | 77 | 16% |
| Student > Bachelor | 74 | 15% |
| Researcher | 66 | 13% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 26 | 5% |
| Other | 94 | 19% |
| Unknown | 74 | 15% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Psychology | 123 | 25% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 57 | 12% |
| Social Sciences | 35 | 7% |
| Computer Science | 26 | 5% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 20 | 4% |
| Other | 136 | 28% |
| Unknown | 93 | 19% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2484. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 29 April 2024.
All research outputs
#3,180
of 25,922,020 outputs
Outputs from PLOS ONE
#34
of 226,236 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#5
of 191,862 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PLOS ONE
#1
of 4,418 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,922,020 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 226,236 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.9. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 191,862 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 4,418 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.