“So Cute I Can Eat it Up”: Priming Effects of Cute Products on Indulgent Consumption

This research examines exposure to cute products – a previously unexplored factor that might affect the extent to which consumers engage in indulgent consumption. Companies market cute products in various categories not only to children, but also to adult consumers. The marketplace is replete with cute clothes, utensils, appliances, foods, and even automobiles (e.g., Taylor 2011). Despite the abundance of cute products in the marketplace, however, academic research on their evaluation or their downstream effects on consumer decision-making and behavior is limited. This is the first research to examine how cute products available in the marketplace (e.g., cute cookies or cute ice cream scoops) may influence consumers’ consumption behavior. In the current research we explore cuteness, which refers to products (and other objects) that are attractive in an adorable or endearing way and have a whimsical nature. Past research had shown that exposure to cute human stimuli (e.g., babies, baby-like facial features) triggers caretaking behavior and carefulness (Sherman, Haidt, and Coan 2009; Sherman et al. 2012), which should lead consumers to engage in more restrained and careful behavior. On the other hand, we put forward the possibility that cute products might have the opposite effect of triggering indulgent and frivolous behavior. We propose that exposure to cute products (i.e., evaluating, using, or consuming such products) would increase indulgent consumption, because cute products’ whimsical nature would prime mental representations of fun and frivolity.