The cute look: Baby-schema effects in product design: Visual key stimuli in car fronts and human faces

According to evolutionary theory, some visual key stimuli such as the baby-schema ("Kindchenschema") automatically elicit strong positive responses in consumers (e.g., affection and approach behavior). Previous studies have suggested that consumers perceive and process car fronts analog to human faces. However, it is not known how consumers respond on an affective level to such biologically relevant patterns when they are present in artifacts. In two experiments, we examined whether people would provide similar cuteness ratings to pictures of car fronts and faces, which were manipulated according to the baby-schema. Our results showed that people were able to detect the baby-schema in car fronts. Further, people's cuteness ratings of car fronts, although generally lower, were comparable to their cuteness ratings of human faces. Hence, visual key stimuli might be powerful product design features to create affect-laden product designs.