[Koglist] [CEU Cogsci Talks] CDC Seminar: Nicolas Baumard (Institut Jean Nicod), Wednesday, September 3, 4 pm

Dear All, The CEU Department of Cognitive Science invites you to the following talk. Nicolas Baumard<https://nicolasbaumards.org/> (Institut Jean Nicod) Title: Revisiting Lorenz’s Kindchenschema: Cuteness as a System for Developmental Engagement Abstract: What is the evolutionary function of cuteness? The dominant view, inspired by Lorenz’s Kindchenschema theory, holds that cuteness evolved to trigger caregiving responses to vulnerable infants. While this care-based model is supported by robust findings on facial features, neural activation, and hormonal responses, it fails to explain a key pattern: we find children cutest not when they are helpless, but when they are sociable, curious, and eager to interact. More surprisingly, we also perceive adults as cute when they display not vulnerability, but naïveté, enthusiasm, and teachability. We propose a developmental investment theory of cuteness, according to which cuteness is not merely a care-eliciting mechanism, but a motivational system that evolved to support various forms of prosocial investment in the development of inexperienced individuals. Drawing on evolutionary anthropology, cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology and social sciences, we argue that cuteness identifies motivated but inexperienced individuals, and elicits not rescue, but teaching, guidance, and social play. This theory provides a better account of which traits elicit cuteness, what responses they provoke, and how cuteness is strategically deployed. It explains why cuteness can be attractive in romantic interactions, why modern, learning-rich environments foster an explosion of cuteness in media, politics, and product design, and why women disproportionately perform cuteness in patriarchal societies. Finally, we suggest that, over evolutionary time, this system may have contributed to the domestication of other species — and to the self-domestication of our own. Date: Wednesday, September 3, 2025 Time: 4 pm (to 5:30 pm) CET Venue: D-002 (QS Vienna) and Zoom (meeting ID: 969 2496 5784<https://ceu-edu.zoom.us/j/96924965784?pwd=c2duZ0dDMFdEMUthK2Mwa2wzMllEUT09>, passcode: 471712) Chair: Gergely Csibra Best, Mariem *Anyone not affiliated with CEU wishing to attend in-person in Vienna must RSVP here<https://forms.office.com/e/pAk6DcJwzF> <https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=E1nE2VN24kuSC72wOGOBhAH3qG-CM_1AneZBqb5K0GdUMTNWU1gzUlU2S1lUU1pENDVCNDZYME1IVy4u> to get access to the lecture hall. ______________________________________________ Subscribe by sending an empty mail to talks-subscribe(a)cogsci.ceu.edu Unsubscribe by sending an empty mail to talks-unsubscribe(a)cogsci.ceu.edu