The ‘Aww’ Factor: Robot Cuteness as a Catalyst for Emotional Responses and Caretaking Tendencies

Cuteness is a key factor in human-human interaction. Infant cuteness, described by Lorenz’s baby schema, is thought to promote infant survival by eliciting caregiving behaviors and positive emotions. Despite evidence that people prefer to interact with cute robots, the specific mechanisms through which cuteness influences human–robot interaction remain poorly understood. This research investigated the relationship between perceived robot cuteness, emotional responses, and caretaking tendencies. In two online surveys, participants rated all robots from the ABOT database. In survey 1, 156 participants evaluated robots’ perceived cuteness and the extent to which they evoked positive and negative emotions. In survey 2, a separate pool of 152 participants rated the caretaking tendencies elicited by the robots. Results showed that cuteness was positively correlated with positive emotions and caretaking tendencies, and negatively correlated with negative emotions. Path analysis revealed that the effect of cuteness on caretaking tendencies was partially mediated by participants’ emotional responses. Consistent with the baby-schema hypothesis, cuteness was negatively associated with perceived robot age and positively with the presence of facial features. Interestingly, participants' individual characteristics, most notably their tendency to anthropomorphize, influenced the responses. Our findings confirm the importance of robot cuteness for HRI and extend theories of baby schema to artificial agents. They also raise ethical considerations: while cuteness is a powerful design feature that facilitates affective bonding with robots, its persuasive potential should not be used lightly. Cute robots may foster care and trust, but these same mechanisms could be exploited to manipulate users in harmful ways.