Possibly I want to limit my hypothesis to life-forms, thank you for the feedback.
There are cute inanimate objects. Tiny ones. I have adorable polyhedral dice, which I acquired by squealing over them so much that their prior owner thought I should just keep them.
Ah, finally we have a hypothesis on the benefits to humans of the general cuteness instinct!
I have acquired multiple possessions by expressing sincere admiration of them; cuteness was only a factor of said admiration in the one case.
Possibly I want to limit my hypothesis to life-forms, thank you for the feedback.
There are cute inanimate objects. Tiny ones. I have adorable polyhedral dice, which I acquired by squealing over them so much that their prior owner thought I should just keep them.
Ah, finally we have a hypothesis on the benefits to humans of the general cuteness instinct!
I have acquired multiple possessions by expressing sincere admiration of them; cuteness was only a factor of said admiration in the one case.