- How are you doing, you wonderful nerd?
We should probably talk about Baby Groot.
Awww!
He's adorable!
Far cuter than I was as a baby.
Well, alright, it's a tough call.
But that cute factor isn't just great
for Marvel's marketing.
Believe it or not, Baby Groot's adorable looks alone
might make him more powerful than his fully grown form.
His cuteness is a hidden weapon,
and neither Star-Lord nor Rocket
nor the rest of the Guardians even realize it.
(electronic instrumental music)
You may recall that at the end
of the first Guardians of the Galaxy film,
Groot, the giant humanoid tree alien,
sacrificed himself to save the rest of the team.
But thankfully the character came back
in some form or another reborn as a dancing stick.
And by the time the sequel rolled around
only a few months after the first one,
the character grew up.
Not by much.
Director James Gunn explained
that making Groot a baby version of his former self
was the creative change that helped open up the movie.
But what does it mean to be a "baby version"?
I mean, aside from being young,
Groot's design displays physical baby-like characteristics.
Konrad Lorenz coined this word to describe specific features
that characterize cute, baby faces.
I'm not going to try to pronounce it
because every time I try to pronounce foreign words,
I feel like I'm insulting an entire culture.
But it's also referred to as the baby schema.
These traits include things like a large head
proportional to the body,
a big cranium on that head compared to the rest of the face,
huge eyes that lie below the horizontal midline of the face,
a small mouth and nose, round, protruding cheeks,
and a soft surface texture.
Or, at least softer in this case still like tree bark.
It's basically a Pop! figure.
We're describing Pop! figures.
Who's a specifically designed cash grab?
You are!
I'm sure you've seen these design characteristics
present in other creatures
outside of human YouTubers and tree people.
You can see in the design evolution of cartoons and toys,
and with real animals like little puppies and kittens.
Awww!
And that response, that almost uncontrollable awww
that happens for a good reason.
Babies poop and cry and throw tantrums
and need so much attention and help just
to exist and survive.
If I gave you a blank, non-cute box that did all that,
you'd probably get annoyed with it immediately.
That's the evolutionary advantage of cute babies.
By being adorable,
babies ensured that our ancestors didn't kill or abandon
or even eat their otherwise annoying
lumps of poops and screams.
And assuming that sort of instinctive protective nature
is present in the species of the rest of the team,
Baby Groot's cute factor could effectively turn the group
into the Parental Guardians of the Galaxy.
However, babies did not evolve to become cute.
We evolved to think that babies are cute.
If young humans looked like that bland,
boring box from before,
we'd evolve to think that's cute
because that would help our newborns
and ultimately our species survive.
And with humans being social creatures,
it's evolutionarily beneficial
to not only have the parents think their baby is cute,
but to also have other humans think that way
so the parents could leave their child with a friend
and not worry about said friend
eating the baby?
I've been talking a lot about potential baby eating
and I feel like I'm towing a weird line.
But think about that for a second.
Have you ever heard someone say that something was so cute
that they wanted to eat it up or squeeze it or pinch it
or any other aggressive sounding act?
There's been some interesting research on this,
and it marks Baby Groot's first secret cuteness power.
You know, aside from being too adorable
for the bad guys to kill.
A graduate student in psychology at Yale named Rebecca Dyer
wanted to study this cute aggression
to observe the physical response to cuteness.
And here to help reenact the experiment
is Jay from Fancy Teeth and his little human.
Take it away, Jay!
- Okay.
Guys, if you don't know this, I'm a huge fan of bubble wrap.
- In the study, researchers had participants
look at pictures of cute animals, funny animals,
and neutral animals while holding bubble wrap.
The subjects were told that the experiment
was about motor control and memory,
and that they could pop as many or as few bubbles
as they wanted so long as they were doing something.
In reality, the point of the experiment
was to test if people physically react to cuteness
with an outward display of aggression.
In this case, did looking at cute animal pictures
cause the participants to pop more bubbles
on the bubble wrap compared to people
who looked at funny or neutral animal pictures?
Interestingly enough,
the answer appears to be yes by a decent margin.
Participants popped about 50% more bubbles
when looking at cute animals compared to funny animals,
and 20% more than neutral animals.
So, it seems that people have a weird physically
aggressive response to cuteness.
- Awww! (bubble wrap popping)
- Thanks, Jay for the demonstration.
By the way, you can go subscribe to Jay's channel
in the description down below or at the end of this video.
But, why does this happen?
Why does this cute aggression exist?
Well, scientists aren't completely sure why just yet,
but there are a few theories.
One idea is that seeing pictures of my adorable cats
or cute Baby Groot triggers our instincts to care for them,
but since they aren't actually around us in the real world
or you're in a situation where you can't
or shouldn't physically reach out for them,
your brain becomes frustrated
and that could come out as aggression.
Another idea is that we're just overwhelmed
with the positive feeling of seeing cute things
that our brain tries to level it off
by giving a slight negative spin
in the form of aggression.
Whatever the reason, the effect is evident.
Baby Groot through his lovable looks alone
could make the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy
more aggressive towards their enemies.
And when you're facing a giant tentacled alien monster...
Not if, when.
It will happen to you.
That increase in hostility could give the team
the advantage they need to survive.
If only the team could focus long enough
to actually do their job,
which conveniently brings me to Baby Groot's
second hidden power: cuteness increases focus.
In a study by Hiroshi Nittono titled The Power of Kawaii.
Nittono and his team conducted three experiments
that continued to show how looking at images of cute things
improved participants' focus.
In the first experiment,
participants were shown pictures of either baby
or adult animals before performing a motor task
similar to Operation.
They found that those who looked at
cute baby animal pictures
before the task made fewer mistakes
than those who viewed photos of adult animals.
But they also took longer to perform the task,
as if looking at the adorable animals
put them into a more careful, deliberate mindset.
To take it a step further,
the scientists conducted a second test
where participants were meant to find all the instances
of a single digit in a matrix of numbers.
Speed was baked into the task
so researchers could see if cuteness actually improved focus
and not just made participants slow down
and make more careful decisions.
And to sweeten the experiment
in multiple senses of the word,
the researchers threw in pictures of tasty food
to make sure that it wasn't just pleasant images
that were having an effect, but cuteness specifically.
And again, the participants who looked at cute baby animals
before the task performed much better
with the pleasant food and adult animal photos
having next to no effect.
The scientists conducted one final test.
A brain game that you can actually take right now!
Take a look at these images.
They're letters made up of other letters.
Your task is seemingly simple.
Look at the big letter and tell me
if the smaller letters composing it
contain either a T or an H.
Whether the big letter itself is a T or an H
is completely irrelevant.
You're just looking for letters made up of small T's
or small H's.
If you see it, answer yes.
If not, answer no.
Make sense?
Let's rapid fire through a handful of these.
Here's the first one.
You got it?
The answer is yes, it's made up of small T's.
Here's the second one.
The answer is no.
Here's the third.
The answer is yes.
The fourth?
Also yes.
The fifth?
No.
How many did you get?
Let me know in the comments below.
My guess is you probably did pretty well
since we've been looking at cute pictures this entire video.
And that is exactly what the study found.
Yet again, participants who viewed cute photos of animals
had a narrower focus and performed better at this task
than those who looked at other more neutral images.
Baby Groot's cuteness could unwittingly
improve the focus and attention of the Guardians,
a group of people who sorely need focus.
But how about that?
I bet you didn't think
that having an adorable little teammate
would benefit the Guardians of the Galaxy
via cuteness alone!
I dare to say that this tiny Groot
might even be an even more effective team member
than the older Groot,
just from his sheer passive cute factor.
However, this additional focus and aggression
caused by Baby Groot's cuteness
has the potential to backfire,
or at the least cancel itself out.
It's not like he can target his looks at just his teammates.
Who knows if this giant tentacle monster
finds Baby Groot cute,
but other more human enemies that the Guardians face
might feel the same effects causing them to be more hostile
and attentive as well.
But the one person it doesn't seem to affect
is Baby Groot himself
who seems to be the least focused of the bunch.
Though, he certainly doesn't need much help
in the hostility department.
Awww!
Still cute.
What do you think?
Do you prefer Baby Groot or the older Groot?
Do you think that Baby Groot's cuteness
has an impact on the team, either positive or negative?
Are you feeling aggressively focused
after watching this video?
Let me know in the comments down below.
Once again, I want to thank Jay from Fancy Teeth
for helping out with this video.
His channel is linked below.
If you like sci-fi and comics
and breaking down nerdy goodness,
you'll love what he does over there.
Go check him out.
As always, I want to thank our patrons
who make these videos possible.
The names of those wonderful nerds are right here.
Special shout outs to Alberto Ramirez, Cristoffer Lange,
Patrick Caddy, Elizabeth Moncel, and Austin Rogers.
I'll see you guys next week for a new video.
In the meantime, I'm Scott reminding you
to read between the panels and grow smarter through comics.
See ya!