The Science of Snorlax Cute

This afternoon I was lounging in front of the TV revisiting old episodes of the Pokemon cartoon. I was burning through episodes of the Orange Islands season, in which Ash takes on the island dwelling "Orange Crew" gym leaders with the help of his spunky gal pal Misty, the lovable dork Tracy Sketchit, and a handful of pocket monsters.

In the episode entitled "Snack Attack" Ash and crew stumble upon an island famous for its abundance of grapefruit trees. While here they have a chat with the locals (par for the course in a Pokemon episode!) and discover that their grapefruit trees are being ravaged by a mysterious thief. To make a long story short, the thief in question turns out to be none other than the lovable ball of lard known as Snorlax. What follows is a comedy of errors in which Ash and his friends, along with the inept career criminals Jesse and James, try to put an end to Snorlax's wild feeding frenzy. Eventually Ash is able to send Snorlax off to dreamland and capture him in a pokeball, but this happens only after many failed attempts and cheesy puns (a swimming Snorlax is said to be swimming the "blubberfly" as opposed to the butterfly).

Overall I've got no complaints about this episode, it was almost 20 solid minutes of Snorlax gold. It just got me wondering, why is Snorlax so cute? Why am I at the mercy of his adorable fatness?

I did some quick research online about the science and psychology behind cuteness. An article from the New York Times entitled "The Cute Factor" delves into the science behind cuteness and helps explain why Snorlax's extra poundage and waddle are so painfully adorable. Turns out we human beings are hardwired to find our offspring ascetically pleasing. This is nature's way of getting us to actually take care of our kids. Apparently mother nature feels that the human race is comprised almost entirely of shallow bastards who'd cut a kid off for being too ugly. Sadly this isn't entirely off the mark. As another article points out, "Women developed an appreciation of cuteness and, choosing to lavish more care on the cuter babies, gave them the best chance of survival." Turns out that shallow is etched into our DNA!

What does this have to do with our bud Snorlax, who is neither human nor a baby? Human beings attributing baby characteristics as cute doesn't have to stop at the babies. As the New York Times article clarifies, "The human cuteness detector is set at such a low bar, researchers said, that it sweeps in and deems cute practically anything remotely resembling a human baby or a part thereof..." Therefore Snorlax, with his toddler-like crawl, stubby limbs, and pudgy body ignite our parental instincts just by vague association.

Finally the New York Times article goes on to discuss the different cultural meanings and use of cuteness. While "cute" is a standard "look" across human cultures, different cultures react to cuteness differently. Of course cuteness is much more prevalent in Japanese culture than it is in American culture. The article explains the Japanese fascination with cute as follows, "Behind the kawaii phenomenon, according to Brian J. McVeigh, a scholar of East Asian studies at the University of Arizona, is the strongly hierarchical nature of Japanese culture. 'Cuteness is used to soften up the vertical society,' he said, 'to soften power relations and present authority without being threatening.' While this may explain the appeal of Snorlax and fellow Pokemon in their native land, it leaves out why these creatures have found so much cross appeal in the United States. Personally, I attribute the American cute appeal of Snorlax partly to its foreign quality. Since novelty is part of cuteness, and since Snorlax, Pikachu, and the like look so different from Walt Disney's creations, I think it is safe to say that many Americans are attracted to Snorlax for its refreshing take on "awwww".