ABSTRACT
We examined how a presenter’s touch behaviors during an explanation of an object increase an observer’s feelings of kawaii (a Japanese word that means “cute”) toward both the object and the presenter. We also focused on the effects of exaggerated touch styles, because people tend to touch objects more firmly when experiencing a strong sense of kawaii. We investigated this by conducting a face-to-face experiment in which participants observed a robot give a presentation on an object’s characteristics. Our findings revealed that when participants witnessed the robot’s touch behaviors, they perceived the touched object as more kawaii and believed that the robot also found it more kawaii. However, the results did not effectively demonstrate an increase in the participants’ kawaii feelings toward the robot or its exaggerated touch style. These results suggest that observing the touch behaviors of others impacts the perceived feelings toward both presenters and objects, although the effect on the presenter’s kawaii perception and its exaggerated touch styles were less pronounced.
