Cuteness in Japanese design: Investigating perceptions of kawaii among American college students

Abstract

Japanese products and pop culture, such as Hello Kitty, Pokemon, J-pop, and Anime, have gained global popularity, including in the United States. As a result, Japanese Kawaii (cute) design has also spread. It is not clear, however, how American perceptions of Kawaii compare to Japanese perceptions. In previous work by the third and fourth authors, Japanese college students rated 225 images with respect to Kawaii and other characteristics. This work compared perceptions between male and female Japanese college students. In the current paper, we report on a cross-cultural study of perceptions of Kawaii between Japanese students and American students. The study uses data we collected from American students who rated most of the images from the prior study that involved Japanese students.