Irresistible
How Cuteness Wired Our Brains and Conquered the World
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Irresistible
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Narrated by:
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Humphrey Bower
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By:
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Joshua Paul Dale
About this listen
Why are some things cute, and others not? What happens to our brains when we see something cute? And how did cuteness go global, from Hello Kitty to Disney characters?
Cuteness is an area where culture and biology get tangled up. Seeing a cute animal triggers some of the most powerful psychological instincts we have – the ones that elicit our care and protection – but there is a deeper story behind the broad appeal of Japanese cats and saccharine greetings cards.
Joshua Paul Dale, a pioneer in the burgeoning field of cuteness studies, explains how the cute aesthetic spread around the globe, from pop brands to Lolita fashion, kids' cartoons and the unstoppable rise of Hello Kitty. Irresistible delves into the surprisingly ancient origins of Japan's kawaii culture, and uncovers the cross-cultural pollination of the globalised world. If adorable things really do rewire our brains, it can help answer some of the biggest questions we have about our evolutionary history and the mysterious origins of animal domestication.
©2023 Joshua Paul Dale (P)2024 Bolinda PublishingCritic Reviews
'Dale shows what we can learn about our societies and ourselves when take cuteness seriously.' (Alisa Freedman, author of Tokyo in Transit)