Enlargement of female pupils when perceiving something cute

Kei Kanari,Kana Kuraguchi

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-02852-5

Abstract

It is reported that women’s pupils dilate when they see a baby; it is unclear if this pupillary response is caused by the perception of cuteness itself. Since many objects besides babies can be perceived as cute, we investigated whether the perception of cuteness, or the type of object observed, is related to pupil dilation. In the first experiment, female participants were requested to rate the subjective cuteness of greyscale pictures of objects such as animals and foods; their pupil sizes were measured. The results showed a significant positive correlation between perceived cuteness and participants’ pupil dilation. In the second experiment, participants rated the cuteness of images of female faces. Results revealed a significant negative correlation between perceived cuteness and pupil dilation. In our study, perceiving cuteness enlarged female observers’ pupils except when observing female faces. Positive reactions associated with cuteness may be premised on the existence of unconscious perceptual alterations and physical responses.

Highlights

It is reported that women’s pupils dilate when they see a baby; it is unclear if this pupillary response is caused by the perception of cuteness itself
Women play the role of primary caregiver, which seems to be consistent with the finding that women are more sensitive to cuteness. Hess[10] revealed that an observer’s pupil size enlarges when looking at what interests them: women’s pupils dilate when looking at photographs of babies or male models, while men’s pupils dilate when looking at female models
Participants were asked to assess the cuteness of different objects, and we investigated whether the perception of cuteness produces a pupillary response

Summary

Introduction

It is reported that women’s pupils dilate when they see a baby; it is unclear if this pupillary response is caused by the perception of cuteness itself. Since babies induce us to perceive cuteness, cuteness perception itself may cause the pupil to dilate, especially for women. This point has not been investigated previously. Aesthetic or attractiveness judgments are related to cuteness, and previous studies have shown that these judgements are correlated with changes in pupil diameter. To clarify whether the perception of cuteness itself causes the pupil response, we analyzed the relationship between pupillary response and perceived cuteness using photographs of animals, food, and plants in Experiment 1, and adult female faces in Experiment 2. Since previous studies have shown that emotional arousal causes pupil dilation[25,26,27], we used a neutral facial expression for all adult female faces

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion