Irresistible: How Cuteness Wired our Brains and Conquered the World (Hardback)

A layer cake of cultural history and developmental biology ... peculiarly charming ... with such a wealth of examples to consider, cute studies has only just begun. There's plenty more to see, and plenty to wave a glow stick at - Daily Telegraph

The global 'cute quake' [is] a seismic fusion of consumerism and sentimentality ... as Dale shows in Irresistible, the trend has been building inexorably for centuries - Miranda France, Times Literary Supplement

Fascinating ... you'll never look at a Hello Kitty or a Pokémon the same way again - Mail on Sunday

[A] fascinating exploration of what it means to be cute, and why we love cute things - Charlotte Runcie, Sunday Telegraph

Dale makes a strong case for his subject to be taken seriously ... one can only admire the breadth and range of his cute examples - Ian Sansom, Spectator

Dale, a cheerful and able raconteur, has written a cracking story, straddling history, art and complex developmental science - New Scientist

Our fascination with cuteness is more than just a quirk of human psychology; it's fundamental to explaining what made us human in the first place .... an absolute treasure trove of unconventional and unexpected insight - Justin Gregg, author, If Nietzsche Were A Narwhal

Compelling ... the scope of Dale's research is impressive as the reader is provided with a full-fledged cultural analysis of what it means to be kawaii ... [Dale] takes us on a number of such global detours, but always circles back to analyse the spread and meaning of kawaii in Japan - All About Japan

An unprecedented and occasionally startling roadmap of social, psychological, and even biological reasons why humans find things cute, from babies and kittens to Hello Kitty, from anime to Disney. Deeply researched and engagingly written, Irresistible is more than its title implies - it's essential - Matt Alt

In this landmark work of cute studies, Joshua Paul Dale deftly combines comprehensive overview and eye-opening analysis to pinpoint the developments of cuteness across Japanese and Western cultures ... Irresistible is a significant and entertaining exploration of a ubiquitous but often-overlooked aesthetic - Isabel Galleymore

Recognising cuteness is a spontaneous, natural act - a knee-jerk omg moment - but within that reaction is a universe of feels: what we want from others, what we find worth protecting, and how we reach out for connection. Irresistible is scholarship that does not feel at all like homework, and Dale deftly unpacks the long and broad history of the feeling of kawaii with deep respect, rigour, and a sense of fun. It's a book you'll absolutely want to squeeze - Connie Wang

In this accessible, enjoyable book, Joshua Dale takes readers on a tour of the aesthetics and cultural uses of Japanese kawaii and related forms of cuteness, traversing historical times and national boundaries. Dale shows what we can learn about our societies and ourselves when take cuteness seriously - Alisa Freedman, author, Tokyo in Transit

An irresistible read for a wide audience ... with a gift of story-telling and a firm grasp of scientific as well as historical and contemporary artistic sources, both in the West and Japan, Joshua Dale offers us (with good humour) reason to take seriously the cute to understand our contemporary world and its meaning for our humanity - Prof. Gary Cross, Pennsylvania State University