The Effect of a Cute Stimulus on Personally-Initiated, Self-Administered Surveys

Abstract

Two experiments are described that used a cute stimulus to enhance the response to a personally-initiated, self-administered survey. A picture of a cute infant was used as the stimulus in the first experiment while a live Yorki puppy was used as the stimulus in the second experiment. Both experiments found that the cute stimulus dramatically increased the response rate to the survey, causing it to increase by 88% in the first experiment and by 42% in the second one. Both experiments also found that females were more likely than males to respond to the cute stimulus. Suggestions for future researchers are offered.