bro@rice.ARPA (07/31/85)
From: Doug Monk <bro@rice.ARPA> In SFLD V10 #287, it was suggested that : >The treasuring of cute little animals is hardly a cultural >universal. For example: a rather decadent Chinese banquet delicacy >was live baby mice dipped in honey and rolled in sesame seeds. Yum. Not a good counter-example : baby mice only meet the helpless criterion of the cuteness index ( which someone else posted a partial version of earlier. ) The only really "cute" mice in fact are cartoon mice, which are artificially altered to fit the cuteness profile better. >...Another for >example: the fellows up in the Great White North who make their >living clubbing baby seals probably don't shed any tears over the >'cute' baby seals with their 'cute' big eyes. I suspect the 'cute' >reaction is primarily a fairly recent Anglo-American cultural >tradition, since I've never seen it mentioned in any other cultural >contexts. Anyone else out there have any ideas about this? In behavioral science, one of the most popular theories to bandy about ( especially when what one is working on is not too interesting ) is the issue of "instincts" in human beings. One school of thought holds that the "cuteness reflex" is so pervasive in almost all of human society that it qualifies as an "instinct". There have been studies done which indicate that there are certain qualities which trigger this reflex, and these qualities have been tabulated into a "cuteness profile" ( including large eyes, large head in proportion to the body, helplessness, etc. ) Since I am not working in the behavioral field any longer ( bitten by the computer bug, oh no !-), I can't come up with more specifics right at the moment, but try the Social Sciences Index in a good research library. As to slaughtering baby seals for profit, I don't think that the "instinct" if it is such ( and there are schools of thought that maintain it is just a strong reflex which might be learned in its entirety ) is strong enough to completely overwhelm all other factors : greed, sadism, self-defense, etc. Just as in animals, it would be expected that instincts can be over-ridden. The fact that the slaughter of baby seals raises such vehement outrage in other people might be attributed to the "instinct", though. It might be interesting to compile a list of baby animals people consider cute and compare with a list of non-cute baby animals and see how well it matches or violates the cuteness profile. ( No, I am NOT volunteering! I'm busy that day... :-). Doug Monk (bro@rice.arpa)