Are Children's Faces Really More Appealing than Those of Adults? Testing the Baby Schema Hypothesis beyond Infancy

Autor/inn/en	Luo, Li Zhuo; Li, Hong; Lee, Kang
Titel	Are Children's Faces Really More Appealing than Those of Adults? Testing the Baby Schema Hypothesis beyond Infancy
Quelle	In: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 110 (2011) 1, S.115-124 (10 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0022-0965
DOI	10.1016/j.jecp.2011.04.002
Schlagwörter	Cues; Infants; Visual Perception; Interpersonal Relationship; Adults; Comparative Analysis; Theories; Young Children; Age Differences; Human Body; Nonverbal Communication + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Stichwort; Infant; Toddler; Toddlers; Kleinkind; Visuelle Wahrnehmung; Interpersonal relation; Interpersonal relations; Interpersonelle Beziehung; Zwischenmenschliche Beziehung; Theory; Theorie; Frühe Kindheit; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Menschlicher Körper; Non-verbal communication; Nonverbale Kommunikation
Abstract	This study examined adults' evaluations of likeability and attractiveness of children's faces from infancy to early childhood. We tested whether Lorenz's baby schema hypothesis ("Zeitschrift fur Tierpsychologie" (1943), Vol. 5, pp. 235-409) is applicable not only to infant faces but also to faces of children at older ages. Adult participants were asked to evaluate children's faces from early infancy to 6 years of age in terms of their likeability and attractiveness, and these judgments were compared with those of adult faces. It was revealed that adults judged faces of younger children as more likeable and attractive than faces of older children, which were in turn judged as more likeable and attractive than adult faces. However, after approximately 4.5 years of age, the baby schema no longer affected adults' judgments of children's facial likeability and attractiveness. These findings suggest that the baby schema affects adults' judgments of not only infant faces but also young children's faces. This influence beyond infancy is likely due to the fact that facial cranial growth is gradual during early childhood and certain crucial infantile facial cues remain readily available during this period. Future studies need to identify these specific cues to better understand why adults generally show positive responses to infantile faces and how such positive responses influence the establishment and maintenance of social relationships between young children and adults. (Contains 2 figures and 2 tables.) (As Provided).
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Update	2017/4/10