Quote - > Quote - This is a strange thread. I don't think anyone or any culture can lay claim on "inventing" cute. Babies are cute. Perhaps they are cute so mommies and daddies will take care of them since they are helpless on their own. 

This is true even in baby animals.  Baby animals such as birds and mammals are cute
because even these animals have a "cuteness" sense and that encourages them
to take care of their young.  While babies of many reptiles, fish, insects
tend not to be cute because they are on their own when they hatch, hence there
is no need for them to be cute.  Baby alligators are an exception, because
mother alligators do care for their young.  It has even been found some baby
dinosaurs were cute, because those dinosaurs also cared for their young.
That may be the reason you hear stories about mother dogs taking care
of kittens and bunnies, they are too cute for the dog to resist.

 

The attributes which are interpreted as "cute" are due to neotony, which is essentially offspring being born before they are fully developed. There is a tradeoff between a longer gestation and a shorter infancy vs. shorter gestation and a longer infancy. Mammal offspring, especially primates, are born while before the fetus is fully developed. In the case of primates, including humans, this is before the offspring is capable of walking. The The generally accepted reason why we perceive neotonous creatures as "cute" is, as quoted above, so that their parents will take care of them, but the reason why those particular features are perceived as cute is due to neotony.