I hope I am not stating something that's obvious, but do you think that cute anime characters have some sort of psychological impact on you? Such as the feeling you get when you see a helpless baby and you feel the need to hug it, or if you see a puppy and you just can't help but pet it...
It seems to me that anime has a trend of exaggerating cuteness towards its viewer. A few anime titles like Digi Charat and Mao-Chan comes to mind as being shows that are nothing but cuteness.
As a guy, it's kind of a unique feeling to see anime characters in such a light; cuteness is definately an infectious part of anime and it certainly is one of the reasons it's attached me to most anime.