>[!abstract]
>Kindchenschema (literally "baby schema") is a term coined by ethologist Lorenz Konrad in 1943 to refer to the empathetic human emotion that results from interacting with cute people or animals with a set of infantile features such as large eyes, round face, and small nose that trigger caregiving responses.
[[Kis, 2021|Kis (2021)]] references studies that have shown various effects related to Kindchenschema:
- Showing pictures of unfamiliar infants to participants triggers intense and rapid changes in the orbitofrontal cortex and the accumbens nucleus, pointing towards care-giving and carefulness tendencies. This preference for the Kindchenschema is observed in humans as young as three years of age.
- [[Cute aggression]] is an opposite and balancing reaction.
- The perceived cuteness of an animal also influences our dietary choices and willingness to eat its meat.
- Adults with infantile facial traits are also unconsciously considered less smart and more helpless, which makes them targets to unconscious bias or discrimination in job positions that require responsibility.
>[!related]
>- **North** (upstream): [[Ethology]]
>- **West** (similar): [[Kawaii]], [[Neoteny]]
>- **East** (different): [[Pathogen avoidance]]
>- **South** (downstream): [[Cute aggression]]