ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Media Psychology
Cuteness Conquest: How Cuteness Type and Brand Impression Affect Consumers' Brand Evaluation in Social Media
Provisionally accepted
- Hangzhou City University, Hangzhou, China
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While cuteness has become a strategic tool for brands on social media, its effectiveness remains inconsistent. This ambiguity stems from an oversimplified conceptualization of cuteness and an incomplete understanding of the relational mechanisms of its operation.To fill this gap,we developed and tested a model based on consistency theory and stereotype content model (SCM). We distinguish kindchenschema and whimsical cuteness, and examine how their consistency with brand impression (warmth and competence) shapes brand evaluation by promoting parasocial interaction (PSI).The results of three experiments show that a match (e.g., warmth with the kindchenschema,competence with whimsical) promotes PSI, thereby enhancing brand evaluation.Crucially, we identify social exclusion as a key boundary condition: this matching effect is significantly amplified among socially excluded consumers, for whom it serves a compensatory role, but is attenuated among socially included individuals.By moving beyond assessment of the cuteness intensity, this research provides actionable insights for strategically deploying brand personification on social media.
Keywords: brand impression, cuteness, Parasocial interaction, social exclusion, SocialMedia Marketing
Received: 23 Oct 2025; Accepted: 02 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Jia, Jia, Jiawen and xiaomei. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: wang xiaomei
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