“Cute” pictures of baby animals， including puppies and kittens， can have powerful effects on people’s attention and concentration， psychological scientists at Hiroshima University in Japan have found. Led by researcher Hiroshi Nittono， the team conducted three experiments with 132 university students and concluded that cute images may help improve performance on detail-oriented tasks that require concentration.

Research has long shown that people are more likely to respond to “cute” baby-like features—a large head， a high big forehead， and large eyes—known as the “baby schema”. Baby animals also have baby schema characteristics， which helps explain why we think puppies and kittens are cuter than dogs and cats.

The baby schema can activate a number of inborn processes in people， including smiling and positive affect and other nurturing behavior， but the research suggests that cute images may also have an impact on attention and perception.

In the first experiment from Nittono’s team， a group of 48 college students were asked to play a game. The students used tweezers to remove tiny plastic body parts from holes in the body of a “patient” without touching the sides of the holes. After playing one round of the game， half of the students looked at a series of seven images of cute puppies and kittens while the others viewed pictures of adult dogs and cats.

日本廣島大學(xué)的心理學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)，諸如小貓、小狗之類的小動物的“可愛”照片可以對人們的注意力和專注力產(chǎn)生顯著的影響。研究員入戶野宏帶領(lǐng)的團(tuán)隊對 132 名大學(xué)生進(jìn)行了三項實驗，得出的結(jié)論是：可愛的圖像可能有助于提高需要注意力集中的精細(xì)任務(wù)的表現(xiàn)。

長期以來的研究表明，人們多對“可愛”的嬰兒般的特征做出反應(yīng)——大頭、高大的前額和大眼睛——這些被稱為“嬰兒圖式”。小動物也有嬰兒圖式的特征，這就解釋了為什么我們認(rèn)為小貓和小狗比成年的貓和狗更可愛。

嬰兒圖式可以激活人們的許多潛在的行為，包括微笑、正向情感和其他養(yǎng)育行為，但該研究表明，可愛的圖像也可能對人們的注意力和感知產(chǎn)生影響。

入戶野宏團(tuán)隊進(jìn)行的第一個實驗要求48名大學(xué)生玩一個游戲。學(xué)生用鑷子從“病人”身上的洞中取出微小的塑料身體部位，而不能接觸洞的邊緣。一輪游戲結(jié)束后，一半的學(xué)生觀看了7張為一組的可愛的小貓和小狗的照片，而另一半學(xué)生則觀看了成年貓和狗的照片。

The students who had looked at cute baby animal photos significantly improved their performance on the second round. Interestingly， they engaged in the task at a slower， more deliberate pace after viewing the photos. The students who had looked at adult animal photos showed no change in performance in both trials. “This finding suggests that viewing cute images makes participants behave more deliberately and perform tasks with greater time and care，” writes Nittono.

Between each task， students were randomly shown images of either baby animals， adult animals， or other objects. After viewing cute images， students were faster at processing the small letters relative to the large ones. This result suggests that cute images help people pay more attention to details. One explanation for this could be because babies require caregivers to pay careful attention to their mental and physical well-being， as well as potential watchfulness against any possible danger.

The researchers suggest that cute images may be helpful in improving performance for jobs that demand significant attention to detail， like air traffic control or software programmers. From the Super Bowl to the Puppy Bowl， this study suggests that puppies may be a winning choice for advertisers looking to stand out and make an impression.

看過可愛小動物照片的學(xué)生在第二輪的表現(xiàn)明顯提升。有趣的是，在看完照片后，他們以更慢、更從容的速度完成了這項任務(wù)?？催^成年動物照片的學(xué)生在兩次試驗中的表現(xiàn)沒有顯著變化。入戶野宏寫道：“這一發(fā)現(xiàn)表明，觀看可愛的圖像會讓參與者表現(xiàn)得更加從容，并花更多的時間和精力來執(zhí)行任務(wù)?！?/p>

在每項任務(wù)之間，學(xué)生會隨機(jī)看小動物、成年動物或其他物體的照片。觀看可愛的照片后，學(xué)生識別小字母的速度比大字母的更快。這一結(jié)果可表明，可愛的圖像有助于人們更加關(guān)注細(xì)節(jié)。對此的一種解釋可能是因為嬰兒需要照顧他們的人密切關(guān)注他們的身心健康，并對任何可能的危險保持警惕。

研究人員認(rèn)為，可愛的圖像可能對需要高度關(guān)注細(xì)節(jié)的工作有所幫助，如空中交通管制或軟件程序員。這項研究表明，從“超級碗”到“狗狗超級杯”，對于想要脫穎而出并給人留下深刻印象的廣告商來說，選擇小狗可能才會獲勝。