# Super Kawaii Vocalics: Amplifying the "Cute" Factor in Computer Voice

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.06235 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.06235/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 13 of its 77 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 20 May 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [The State of Speech in HCI: Trends, Themes and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.06828/) (2018)
- [Dark Patterns at Scale: Findings from a Crawl of 11K Shopping Websites](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.07032/) (2019)
- [ProtoSound: A Personalized and Scalable Sound Recognition System for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Users](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.11134/) (2022)
- [Measuring Voice UX Quantitatively: A Rapid Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.07108/) (2021)
- [Exploring Gender-Expansive Categorization Options for Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.00191/) (2022)
- [Robot's Gendering Trouble: A Scoping Review of Gendering Humanoid Robots and its Effects on HRI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.01130/) (2022)
- [Can Voice Assistants Sound Cute? Towards a Model of Kawaii Vocalics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.12809/) (2023)
- [What Do We See in Them? Identifying Dimensions of Partner Models for Speech Interfaces Using a Psycholexical Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.02094/) (2021)
- [The Impact of Perceived Tone, Age, and Gender on Voice Assistant Persuasiveness in the Context of Product Recommendations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.04791/) (2024)
- [Kawaii Computing: Scoping Out the Japanese Notion of Cute in User Experiences with Interactive Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.08244/) (2024)
- [Kawaii Game Vocalics: A Preliminary Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.04731/) (2023)
- [Chat GPT Integrated with Voice Assistant as Learning Oral Chat-based Constructive Communication to Improve Communicative Competence for EFL earners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.00718/) (2023)
- [Qualitative Approaches to Voice UX](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.14736/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Sexualised synthetic personas encode and amplify gendered power asymmetries through voice](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.21366/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

"Kawaii" is the Japanese concept of cute, which carries sociocultural connotations related to social identities and emotional responses. Yet, virtually all work to date has focused on the visual side of kawaii, including in studies of computer agents and social robots. In pursuit of formalizing the new science of kawaii vocalics, we explored what elements of voice relate to kawaii and how they might be manipulated, manually and automatically. We conducted a four-phase study (grand N = 512) with two varieties of computer voices: text-to-speech (TTS) and game character voices. We found kawaii "sweet spots" through manipulation of fundamental and formant frequencies, but only for certain voices and to a certain extent. Findings also suggest a ceiling effect for the kawaii vocalics of certain voices. We offer empirical validation of the preliminary kawaii vocalics model and an elementary method for manipulating kawaii perceptions of computer voice.