Kindness Button

The opposite of Berserk Button where a person does something that makes another person unpleasant, especially if it has bad consequences. Kindness Button is when you do something that a person finds so pleasant that he seems to enjoy it and even praise you for it, which you will obviously like. Or you do something you know the person likes. You give a compliment to the poor depressed girl and she will smile at you, and who knows, she might even go out with you.

Rare cases would be doing something so nice to someone who's a Jerkass which will turn him into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold or even a Nice Guy. Also, apologizing and making amends with others you've wronged might make them calm down and become happy with you can also be examples of this trope (although using a certain thing they like can easily earn you forgiveness). Often people who's afraid of angering someone (especially people with Hair-Trigger Temper) will push that someone's button. Doing so is often also make the presser Easily Forgiven if they're already guilty of something.

In cases where Even Evil Has Standards, reminding a villain of their standards may be enough to get them to reconsider their evil ways, or at least to stop and Pet the Dog. This is especially true if their standard involves a family member (Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas, Even Evil Has Loved Ones, Even Mooks Have Loved Ones) or a soft spot for the vulnerable (Would Not Hurt A Child, Never Hurt an Innocent). On the other hand, a more serious villain may see compassion as a Fatal Flaw that needs to be eradicated because Virtue Is Weakness.

This can invoke the philosophy that Good Feels Good. This can lead the character to be friendly to the other because they were nice to said character. Often related to Morality Pet and Morality Chain where the former is when a character shows kindness to the Jerkass and earns gratitude for it or just mentioning this is enough to soften the tough character up while the latter is about a character being the only reason why he remains on the side of good. It can be Cuteness Proximity if the thing in question is a cute fluffy animal. The non-sexual variant of Instant Seduction.

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Akame ga Kill!: Tatsumi manages to get on his team's good side by being nice to them all the time. His care for them is also why they all like him, including all his female teammates.
• Hanaukyō Maid Team: Head security maid Konoe Tsurugi is normally very strict and shows no positive emotions. However, when she's in the presence of the puppy Fenris (and in private) she melts and becomes more pleasant because he's so cute.
• Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Liliruca "Lili" Arde at first was taking advantage of Bell Cranel's kindness, thinking that he was an naive idiot who didn't realize she was conning him. After she's beaten up and left for death by the members of her own familia, Bell comes back to save her. The fact that he shows to truly care for her causes her to rethink her opinion, even falling in love with him.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
  • The one surefire way for Kaguya to treat someone nicely is for them to give validation for her relationship with Shirogane.
  • How do you get Miko to warm up to you? Just compliment her, as she Desperately Craves Affection. Though the only person who outright abuses this is Fujiwara.
• K-On!: Mugi's cakes and other sweets puts everyone in a good mood.
  • In the first season, Azusa quickly realizes that everybody finds it adorable when she wears cat ears, which leads to her putting them on in the hopes of calming the tension when Mio and Ritsu start fighting. It works, possibly because they felt sorry for pushing her to do it. In the OVA it prompts an "Everybody Laughs" Ending when she forgets she's wearing them, and nobody told her.
• In One Piece, this happens to Gin when Sanji gives him food for free so he doesn't starve to death.
  • Similarly with Sanji himself, who is quite a jerk to most other guys, but if they are hungry, he will gladly make them some food, and he will even prepare special food for them if they are picky eaters. This is due to an incident in his past that taught him not to underestimate starvation, so he'll give food to anyone no matter if he likes them or not (but if he doesn't like them, he'll beat them up afterwards).
• Rebuild World: For both Akira and Sheryl who are described as having distorted personalities from growing up in the Wrong Side of the Tracks, hugs are this. For Akira there's also baths.

Film

• Norman Bates from the Psycho film series is usually an Ax-Crazy Tragic Villain undergoing a Split-Personality Takeover, but usually whenever another character treats him as a person rather than a freak, his good side will come into play.
• Ratatouille. Remy manages to press Anton's by serving him a simple peasant dish, ratatouille, that has him flash back to his own childhood where the dish was a Comfort Food served by his mother.

Literature

• In the children's book Black and Blue Magic Harry Marco is given a Magical Elixer which gives him wings. He uses a neighbor's carriage house to take off and land from. He discovers later on that the wife has seen him and, thinking he is a "vision" of an angel, takes it as a sign to amend her shrewish ways.
• A Brother's Price has Princess Trini who is rude to the protagonist at first, but turns out to be very altruistic when she thinks he is in danger.
• In Emma, the eponymous protagonist is very snobbish and frequently complains about the Coles, a trade family that she thinks are putting on airs of gentility without being good at it. She's actually quite looking forward to turning down an invitation to a party they're planning, and is subsequently put out when it seems they aren't going to ask her. However, her opinion of them does a 180 turn when they do finally send it and explain the delay as preparing arrangements for her sweet but hypochondriac father's comfort.
• In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Fluffy the three-headed dog calms down and fall asleep when he hears music.
• Played for Laughs in Monday Begins on Saturday where the extremely quarrelsome old woman Naina Kievna (strongly implied to be none other than Baba Yaga) turns into the kindest grandmother when Privalov semi-accidentally makes a sound that is probably best described as "dental click".
• In Shadow of the Conqueror, it surprises Lyrah to find Daylen expressing so much guilt for what his "father" did, and her regard for him improves enough that she tells him that he's nothing like Dayless the Conqueror. He goes on cloud nine over this, considering it the first real proof that he's acting like a better person, and briefly acts like a Nice Guy.

Live Action TV

• On Cutthroat Kitchen, several competitors have won by invoking Antonia Lofaso's Kindness Button, namely making creative or nostalgic use of processed ingredients.
• My Name Is Earl: In the Backstory to "Made a Woman Think I was God", Earl made a woman think he was God by speaking to her through her radio, which made her a much nicer person and she became a nun. When he 'fesses up, Hilarity Ensues.
• Scrubs: Dr. Kelso has one "good" day (following the only time per year he and his wife have a romantic evening together) where he's actually in a good mood. Everyone takes advantage of this to ask him to sign off on things (like hospital equipment). It turns out that he invoked this trope; he isn't really any happier on that day, but he pretends to be so people will only bother him once a year.
  • Despite being an abrasive individual, Dr. Cox does have standards and when he sees someone around him cry (especially if it's because of him), he usually goes out of his way to make them feel better. When he meets Denise, an annoying paramedic who never stops talking, he gives her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech before realising that the son she kept talking about is Dead All Along, he apologises and brings around his son Jack for her to spend some time with. During an episode where he lays into a teenage girl who has stopped taking her medication, he willingly goes to Elliot for advice on how to help her. When he and Dr. Kelso decide to break Molly's indominable cheerfulness, they take pleasure in it until she starts to cry, and Dr. Cox immediately owns up to messing with her on purpose, and when Dr. Kelso publicly nearly drives Elliot to tears, Dr. Cox responds by punching him in the face and offering Elliot some encouragement before going home to spend time with his son.
• Libby from Sabrina the Teenage Witch has one in the form of her grandmother. Sabrina discovering this allows her to get Libby to help with her side of the float they are building by claiming she wants to finish it so she can visit her grandmother. It is downplayed however as Libby does help in a Tsundere kind of way, and she's just as mean in the following episodes.

Video Games

• The Paragon choices from Mass Effect are literal kindness buttons you can select in order to instigate the kindness within others.
  • Jack is an Ax-Crazy convict who tries to push everyone else away, refusing to connect with others out of fear of being betrayed or abused again. However, should Shepard choose to provide her emotional support, help her demolish her former prison, and allow her to let her inner pain out, then she will begin growing fond of Shepard. Depending on the choices you make, possibly in more ways than one.
  • Garrus, a Troubled, but Cute soldier who's dealt with tragedy after tragedy in his life gains Undying Loyalty to Commander Shepard if the player chooses to accept his friendship. Again depending on how you play, it can progress much deeper than that if you play as a male or female.

Visual Novels

• Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney: Ema Skye is normally a grumpy person, especially when Klavier is around. This is in large part due to having failed the exam to become a forensic investigator and ending up as a mere detective. But ask her for help doing scientific investigation and her perky personality from her youth shows up.
• The protagonist of Double Homework eventually finds out how to prevent Dennis from spilling the beans on him in a pinch: by showering him with gratuitous praise, causing Dennis to stop and thank him for the recognition. Justified by Dennis’s narcissism.

Webcomics

• Invoked in one arc of Something*Positive: in order to keep Pee-Jee from doing something stupid (start beating the crap out of her boss' shallow, racist girlfriend), random pictures of cats are regularly sent to her mobile just before she snaps.

Web Original

• CinemaSins: Jeremy has quite a few buttons that can make him remove a sin from a movie in the "Everything Wrong With" videos, like awesome moments, funny jokes, Fanservice (especially of the lesbian variety) and when the filmmakers showcase impressive skill like camera work, visuals, score or writing.
  • The first half of Wall E Is another one, to the point that the Timer hits 1:30 before the Sin counter reaches 1!
• Kirito in Sword Art Online Abridged is a Jerkass who doubles down on his Heroic Comedic Sociopath tendencies after the girl he was opening up to died. He blames himself, and anything that reminds him of her triggers his Chronic Hero Syndrome, much as he might wish otherwise.

Western Animation

• In The Fairly Oddparents episode, "Tiny Timmy", when Timmy visits Vicky's brain, he finds out her emotions are controlled by little people in chairs. One in particular who represented her kindness never showed up for work, so he turns it on himself, suddenly making Vicky a kind and caring person.
• In Family Guy, what made Peter so easily earn the love of his kids again after telling them that he hates being around them is buying them an Xbox.
• The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: Pooh happens to push Wooster's in the climax of "The Great Honey Pot Robbery", as the monster friend of Stan and Heff instantly takes a liking to him once Pooh asks to share his honey with him.
• Rick and Morty: Rick Sanchez has shown to at least be nice to people who laugh at his jokes.
  • "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind": He takes a liking to a nearby creature who laughs at his jokes, only for Evil Rick to tell him that "laugh" is just a noise it makes every 10 seconds.
  • "Rickmancing the Stone": Gives a friendly wink to a Deathstalker who credits him for his burn.
  • "Vindicators 3: The Return of World Ender": His actions were all because Noob-Noob credit him for his jokes. Of course, when Rick became sober, he forgot who Noob-Noob was.
• In an episode of The Simpsons, Lisa discovers a pheromone she dubs "poindextrose" which is given off by nerds, triggering bullies to bully them. Lisa uses a spray of salad dressing to block the bully's scent receptors, rendering the bully unbullying. (The latter would be this trope.)

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