The NY Times Makes Cute a Science

It's so obvious that the NY Times wishes New York City had pandas of its own, because they resorted to putting a HUGE photograph of DC's own Tai Shan on the front section of the Science Times today. And to justify this act, Natalie Angier wrote an article about "The Cute Factor," explaining what Gothamist has secretly suspected: People love round, fat things. Babies? Check. Pandas? Check. Baby pandas? Check. Extra zeros on a paycheck? Check. There's the obligatory mention of the Japanese "kawaii" phenomenon and scientists explaining why people like cute things.:

Observing that many Floridians have an enormous affection for the manatee, which looks like an overfertilized potato with a sock puppet's face, Roger L. Reep of the University of Florida said it shone by grace of contrast. "People live hectic lives, and they may be feeling overwhelmed, but then they watch this soft and slow-moving animal, this gentle giant, and they see it turn on its back to get its belly scratched," said Dr. Reep, author with Robert K. Bonde of "The Florida Manatee: Biology and Conservation."

"That's very endearing," said Dr. Reep. "So even though a manatee is 3 times your size and 20 times your weight, you want to get into the water beside it."

It's so true - Gothamist would love to swim with a manatee!

What is your favorite cute animal? And here are flickr photos tagged with kawaii, cute baby, and panda, plus some favorite sites that offer the cute: Cute Overload and pandafix.

Photograph by Tien Mao

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in Arts & Entertainment on January 3, 2006 3:38 PM

Comments [rss]

Cremaster and Commander

Please give some props to http://justalittleguy.blogspot.com/ as well. Just as cute, 100 times funnier.

Armin

Of tangential interest: How does cute translate into products...

http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/002486.html

detachablepenis

anteater or . . .

Maia

Um, my favorite animal is the giant anteater. Not particularly cute to most people but f**king cute to me! Of course, as Natalie Angier will attest, the babies are still the cutest. You cannot tell me that's not cute!!!

http://bio.sbcc.net/img/anteater333.jpg

fbl

funny, the first thing i thought when i saw the cover of science times was..."is this why we don't have a cure for cancer yet?" CUTE is on the cover of THE NEW YORK TIMES/ SCIENCE TIMES???!!!

famdoc

But NYC DOES have pandas of its own!

Red Pandas, the tiny cousin of the giant panda, can be found at the Prospect Park Zoo.

I'll post some photos and send them to you!

pugsley

Walt Disney had the same theory. That's why his characters had oversized heads and eyes like babies. The most appalling example are the posters all over barnes and noble stores that illustrate authors with giant heads and big baby eyes. Most of the writers are probably spinning in their graves.

MT

I saw a special on PBS once about the physiology of attraction. Apparently humans are attracted to symmetrical things. People we consider beautiful will have symmetrical features, etc.

JEB

And don't forget about Kitten War:

http://kittenwar.com

Rocknrope

I was wondering what took you guys so long to get this up...there's a Panda on it!

blah

maybe now your appetite for cuteness has been sated, and we can be spared further irrelevant panda articles in 2006.

Trilby

My favorite part of the article was that humans are so super-sentive to cuteness that even a large round rock on top of a smaller rock ellicits the cuteness reaction. Who knew?!

J

I also have a theory that animals with lopsided markings on their faces are extra-cute. I saw a dog with a spot over one eye the other day and I nearly melted from the cuteness. One of my cats has asymetrical markings on his face and a random pink spot on his nose, and it's so adorable.