Exposure to cute images may improve concentration

  • 02 Oct 2012

Before reading any further it is imperative that you flick through the gallery of kittens and puppies that accompanies this story. Now. Go on. Seriously, we'll wait.

Back? Good. You should be ready to concentrate fully on the task at hand -- examining a study which claims to have found that exposure to cute animals increases the brain's concentration levels for a short time afterwards. "The Power of Kawaii", published in the open access journal Plos One, details an investigation into the kawaii phenomenon -- that essential quality of cuteness which permeates so much of Japanese culture.

The team from Hiroshima University reference the results of a 2009 study which found that being exposed to cute pictures made a sample group better at playing a surgery board game similar to Operation. Even more intriguing, the cuter the image the better the improvement in dexterity. So the Hiroshima team devised three new experiments to test what kinds of concentration are improved by exposure to cute images, and to hopefully shed some light on why that might be the case.

First, they had to define cuteness. In this instance, the researchers said that "cute objects are assumed to be characterised by baby schema" -- that means big eyes and round faces. This fed into their hypothesis that concentration might be improved around cute things as a kind of instinctual behavioural reflex that occurs when humans are around babies that can't care for themselves.

In the first experiment, 48 participants were split into two groups. They all played a similar game as in the 2009 study, and then each group was shown either a collection of baby animal pictures or adult animal pictures. Then they played the game again -- and the group who had been exposed to the photos of baby animals both scored higher and finished faster than the other group, who saw no change. That replicated the results of the 2009 study.

The second experiment saw a different group of 48 particpants split into two like before, with each group asked to count how many times a certain number appeared among a random string of numbers, as well as what letter was appearing within a shape next to the number string. After the same baby/adult animal picture exposure, the group with the baby animal pictures experience a dramatic increase in accuracy and speed (just like in the first experiment) compared to no change in the other group.

The third experiment, however, didn't find any improvement in reaction times among a group of 36 participants who had to identify a letter flashed quickly on a screen in front of them. That implies that cuteness works as an aid to concentration, not some kind of general aid to mental ability.

So why the improved concentration when looking at baby animals?

The researchers note that "the psychophysiological state underlying the feeling of cuteness has to be explored" before any firm conclusions as to why cuteness improves concentration can be reliably concluded. There are also cultural responses to cuteness which need to be explored -- while the Japanese participants come from a culture where the different reactions to kawaii aren't that big, gender might play a bigger role in a European society, for example.

Regardless, if you're studying for an exam you might want to start filling your breaks with lolcats. How else are you going to get that A?

Images: Shutterstock