The science of cuteness: Where teddy bears' beauty, comfort and care converge.The Journal of Positive Psychology10.1080/17439760.2025.2538890

Abstract: This study examines the attribution of teddy bear cuteness based on visual evaluation of aesthetic, comfort, and care motivation. Using 436 teddy bear photos, the research quantifies the relationship between aesthetic attractivity and comfort attribution, and whether their interaction enhances individuals’ care motivation. The study involved 11,188 French participants, aged from 3 to 92 years old, recruited online. Beauty, comfort, and care values were highly correlated, meaning that visual cuteness of teddy bears relies on a combination of visual attractiveness and comfort attribution that trigger care motivation. Among visual characteristics, perceived softness was identified as the key determinant of cuteness. Participants' age modified preferences patterns, suggesting an influence of stereotypical representations of teddy bears. This study provides a better understanding of the visual determinants of cuteness, and highlights how aesthetic and emotional evaluations of teddy bears influence care behaviors.Description of the data and file structureThis dataset contains the data and code required to replicate analyses in "Teddy bears' cuteness: Where beauty, comfort and care converge" that examines the attribution of teddy bear cuteness based on visual evaluation of aesthetic, comfort, and care motivation. Data provides the results of visual valuation of 436 teddy bear photos by 11,188 French participants, aged from 3 to 92 years old, recruited online from June 2020 to November 2020Morphometric and colorimetric features of teddy bears are also provided, as well as anonymized sociodemographic information about the participants.Files and variables<b>Teddybears data</b>file name : Teddybears_data.csvTeddybears data file contains the morphometric and colorimetric features of the teddybears, their names, source file (URL) and the computed values of beauty, comfort and care.<br><b>Matches</b>file name : Matches.csvMatches data file contains the results of each pairwised comparison matches between two teddybears.<br><b>Participants</b>file name : Participants.csvParticipants data file contains the sociodemographic variables of the participants and other information regarding teddybear ownership.<br><b>Teddy bears' values according to age class</b>file name : Elo_Age_class_all.RDataContains means and SD for Cuteness values of teddy bears according to each age class. This file is required to compute the BRT models comparing cuteness between uner 10 vs. over 60 years.<br><b>Read Me</b>Read me describes each variables contained in the files.Code/softwareR software is required to run the code 'RScript_The_Teddybear_Cuteness.R'All required packages are embeded in the code.This code allow users to compute the analyses and figures published in the related articleRequired data files are 'Matchs.csv', 'Participants.csv', 'Elo_Age_class_all.RData' and 'Teddybears_data.csv'