Why do we feel the need to care for things that are cute, like puppies and kittens? Austrian biologist Konrad Lorenz came up with his "kinderschema" or child scheme, which is a list of physical ...

I once stayed at a friend's place to cat-sit and realized I was in love with her apartment. At first I couldn't quite figure out why, but it eventually dawned on me that it was largely because she ...

Kumamon, a cartoon bear created to promote tourism in an overlooked part of Japan, has become a billion-dollar phenomenon. Now, a new academic field is trying to pinpoint what makes things cute – and ...