Cultural adaptation of “kawaii” in short mobile video applications: How the perception of “kawaii” is shaped by the cultural background of the viewer and the gender of the performer

Abstract Video-sharing social networking (VS-SN) platforms are a new communication tool especially popular among young people. Goal of our study was to examine the cultural adaptation of kawaii in VS-SN videos and its effect on viewers' social approach motivation to share the content. In a content analysis of 198 videos from a Japanese and Chinese VS-SN platform we identified two types of kawaii; “confident kawaii” typically found on the Chinese platform and “shy kawaii” typically found on the Japanese platform. These two types of kawaii were then tested in an online experiment comparing young male university students from Japan (n ​= ​107) and China (n ​= ​115). Chinese participants' kawaii ratings were higher for confident kawaii videos compared to Japanese participants’ ratings but no differences were found for “shy kawaii”. Furthermore, kawaii ratings had the highest prediction value for socially oriented behavior. Results of this study help to explain the impact kawaii has made worldwide and its popularity among young people on VS-SN platforms.