Sj. Mckelvie, PERCEIVED CUTENESS, ACTIVITY LEVEL, AND GENDER IN SCHEMATIC BABYFACES, Journal of social behavior and personality, 8(2), 1993, pp. 297-310
This paper investigated the relationship between features and perceive
d cuteness and examined whether attributions of arousal and gender ref
lect attractiveness stereotypes. Three hundred ninety-six subjects in
eight conditions judged four schematic babyfaces varying in feature pl
acement and eye size. Classifications and rankings indicated that low
placement and large eyes contributed equally to the perception of cute
ness, and combined to give the strongest effect. Judgments of arousal
were generally consistent with the ''beautiful is good'' stereotype fo
r the faces that were most and least cute. They also showed that low a
rousal was attributed to the face with low placement and small eyes. P
erceived gender was related to cuteness, indicating a ''cute is female
'' stereotype. Suggestions for future research are given.