Why You Love BB-8 From Star Wars.

For many Star Wars fans, the real star of The Force Awakens wasn't Rey or Finn, but the little droid BB-8, whose popularity is mainly down to his cuteness. But what is it exactly that makes him so adorable?

The usual explanation for why we think something's cute is that it reminds us of young children.

Astromech droids like BB-8 and R2-D2 communicate via beeps and chirps that resemble the sounds a baby makes before it can talk, for instance. They also roll about and bump into things, like the clumsy movements of a toddler.

Cute characteristics include physical features such as large eyes, a small jaw and big head relative to the body. Baby-like shapes are often round, as shown by a large cranium and bulging cheeks.


The link to babies was proposed by Konrad Lorenz, an Austrian zoologist who studied innate behavior and showed that if he was introduced to duck or geese chicks after hatching, the birds would become attached to him through imprinting, following him around as if he were their mother. He won the 1973 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine – the only time the award has gone to biology (without involving molecules).

Lorenz believed that baby-like features – kinderschema (German for 'child form') – trigger nurturing instincts, prompting our desire to take care of a vulnerable infant. But this only partly explains why we find things cute.

Kinderschema doesn't explain why many people don't like babies, find them ugly or will compare them to Winston Churchill. It also doesn't explain why some humans prefer juveniles of other species – a puppy or kitten, say – over children, or why even inanimate objects are considered cute (which is linked to 'anthropomorphism' – our tendency to apply human qualities to other species and even non-living things).

What triggers nurturing behaviour? Obviously we don't confuse pets with people – at least not consciously – so how can something remind is of a baby when it clearly looks nothing like a human child?

Our brain often creates an overall impression of something by combining elements from the world around us, forming what psychologists call a gestalt. At least for cuteness, however, it's actually individual features - such as a large head - that stimulates nurturing instincts.

Proof that instinct is triggered by individual features (rather than a gestalt) was provided by Niko Tinbergen, another pioneering animal behavior researcher, who shared the Nobel prize with his friend Konrad Lorenz.

Tinbergen's most famous experiment involved parental instincts in songbirds, which lay small, pale-blue eggs speckled with grey. When the Dutch zoologist presented adults with giant, artificial eggs (painted bright blue with black polka dots) the birds would try and hatch the eggs. Even when fake eggs were made several times bigger than normal, the birds would repeatedly try to climb - and then fall off - the unnaturally large structures.

It's not that songbirds are stupid – humans can be tricked too. In one study, participants were shown pictures of cars where the size of 'facial features' were photoshopped. Headlights ('eyes') and air intake ('mouth') were made 20% larger, for instance. While these manipulations were too subtle for the test subjects to consciously perceive, ratings of cuteness showed a preference for cute cars over the originals. Electrodes attached to peoples' faces also detected more activity in 'smiling muscles', reflecting a positive emotional response.

Our preference for cuteness also shapes popular culture. This is illustrated in a classic essay entitled 'A Biological Homage To Mickey Mouse' by evolutionary scientist and writer Stephen Jay Gould, who looked at how Disney's character changed over 50 years, from an almost realistic rodent to a more cartoon creature.

Features that stimulate instincts outside of their natural context can stimulate us more strongly when normal. Tinbergen called such triggers 'supernormal stimuli'.

Evolutionary psychologist Deirdre Barrett, author of Supernormal Stimuli, believes that many elements of modern life overstimulate our natural responses. Her book claims that high levels of sugar and salt in junk food taste good, for instance, while the exaggerated proportions in porn can stimulate our sex drive.


The real reason why we love cute things – many of which clearly don't resemble babies – is that their features act as supernormal stimuli. And so it's the super-childish beeps, bumbling behavior and round body that makes you think BB-8 is cute.