Cute pictures help work better

A study by a Japanese research team showed that people work better after looking at images of cute animals.

 The study, “The Power of Kawaii: Viewing Cute Images Promotes a Careful Behavior and Narrows Attentional Focus” was published on the online edition of U.S. journal “Plos One” on Sept. 26. “Kawaii” is a Japanese word meaning “cute.”

 The research conducted a test to see the performance of university students doing work such as a fine motor dexterity task. It observed the efficiency of the work before and after seeing the images of cute baby animals, adult animals and normal objects such as food. After seeing the pictures of cute animals, the efficiency rose to 44 percent, followed by adult animals with 12 percent, and the normal objects with 1 percent.

 The researchers said that narrow attentional focus induced by the cuteness-triggered positive emotion is associated with approach motivation and the tendency toward systematic processing. In practical way, it can be used in careful behavioral tendencies in specific situations, such as driving and office work, they said.

기사제공: 코리아헤럴드

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