Kawaii Rules: Increasing Affective Value of Industrial Products

Abstract

The Japanese word 'Kawaii,' which represents a kansei/affective value, has such positive meanings as cute, lovable, and small. In the 21st century, the kansei/affective values of industrial products are becoming very important. However, since few studies have focused on kawaii attributes, we systematically analyze kawaii products themselves: the kawaii feelings caused by shapes, colors, sizes, and texture and tactile sensation caused by materials of those products. In this chapter, we introduce our experimental results for abstract objects in virtual environments and describe interesting tendencies for the visual attributes of kawaii, including thier shapes, colors, and sizes. We present these tendencies as kawaii rules. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)