Baby Schema in Infant Faces Induces Cuteness Perception and Motivation for Caretaking in Adults

Ethologist Konrad Lorenz proposed that baby schema (‘Kindchenschema’) is a set of infantile physical features such as the large head, round face and big eyes that is perceived as cute and motivates caretaking behavior in other individuals, with the evolutionary function of enhancing offspring survival. Previous work on this fundamental concept was restricted to schematic baby representations or correlative approaches. Here, we experimentally tested the effects of baby schema on the perception of cuteness and the motivation for caretaking using photographs of infant faces. Employing quantitative techniques, we parametrically manipulated the baby schema content to produce infant faces with high (e.g. round face and high forehead), and low (e. g. narrow face and low forehead) baby schema features that retained all the characteristics of a photographic portrait. Undergraduate students (n = 122) rated these infants’ cuteness and their motivation to take care of them. The high baby schema infants were rated as more cute and elicited stronger motivation for caretaking than the unmanipulated and the low baby schema infants. This is the first experimental proof of the baby schema effects in actual infant faces. Our findings indicate that the baby schema response is a critical function of human social cognition that may be the basis of caregiving and have implications for infant–caretaker interactions

What a cute baby! Preliminary evidence from a fMRI study for the association between mothers ? neural responses to infant faces and activation of the parental care system

Infant facial characteristics, i.e., baby schema, are thought to automatically elicit parenting behavior and affective orientation toward infants. Only a few studies, conducted in non-parents, have directly examined the neural underpinnings of this baby schema effect by manipulating distinctiveness of baby schema in infant faces. This study aims to further our understanding of the intuitive nature of parenting, by studying the baby schema effect in mothers of young children (at least one child aged between 2 and 6 years old). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine mothers’ (N = 23) neural responses to unfamiliar infant faces varying in distinctiveness of baby schema. Also, it was studied how this neural activation to infant faces was associated with maternal nurturance. Results revealed that infant faces elicited widespread activation in bilateral visual cortices, the hippocampus, sensory-motor areas, parietal and frontal cortices, and the insula, which was not modulated by the distinctiveness of baby schema in the infant faces. Furthermore, higher self-reported maternal nurturance was related to increased neural responses to infant faces in the putamen and amygdala, brain regions known to be associated with reward and salience processing. These findings could suggest that in our small sample of mothers some of the core networks involved in reward and salience processing might be less sensitive to variation in distinctiveness of baby schema. Also, unfamiliar infant faces seem to be rewarding only for mothers who report high nurturance. These findings should be considered preliminary, because they need to be replicated in studies with larger samples

Baby schema in human and animal faces induces cuteness perception and gaze allocation in children

The baby schema concept was originally proposed as a set of infantile traits with high appeal for humans, subsequently shown to elicit caretaking behavior and to affect cuteness perception and attentional processes. However, it is unclear whether the response to the baby schema may be extended to the human-animal bond context. Moreover, questions remain as to whether the cute response is constant and persistent or whether it changes with development. In the present study we parametrically manipulated the baby schema in images of humans, dogs, and cats. We analyzed responses of 3–6 year-old children, using both explicit (i.e., cuteness ratings) and implicit (i.e., eye gaze patterns) measures. By means of eye-tracking, we assessed children’s preferential attention to images varying only for the degree of baby schema and explored participants’ fixation patterns during a cuteness task. For comparative purposes, cuteness ratings were also obtained in a sample of adults. Overall our results show that the response to an infantile facial configuration emerges early during development. In children, the baby schema affects both cuteness perception and gaze allocation to infantile stimuli and to specific facial features, an effect not simply limited to human faces. In line with previous research, results confirm human positive appraisal toward animals and inform both educational and therapeutic interventions involving pets, helping to minimize risk factors (e.g., dog bites)

The reward value of infant facial cuteness tracks within-subject changes in women’s salivary testosterone

“Baby schema” refers to infant characteristics, such as facial cues, that positively influence cuteness perceptions and trigger caregiving and protective behaviors in adults. Current models of hormonal regulation of parenting behaviors address how hormones may modulate protective behaviors and nurturance, but not how hormones may modulate responses to infant cuteness. To explore this issue, we investigated possible relationships between the reward value of infant facial cuteness and within-woman changes in testosterone, estradiol, and progesterone levels. Multilevel modeling of these data showed that infant cuteness was more rewarding when women’s salivary testosterone levels were high. Moreover, this within-woman effect of testosterone was independent of the possible effects of estradiol and progesterone and was not simply a consequence of changes in women’s cuteness perceptions. These results suggest that testosterone may modulate differential responses to infant facial cuteness, potentially revealing a new route through which testosterone shapes selective allocation of parental resources

Is attentional prioritisation of infant faces unique in humans?: Comparative demonstrations by modified dot-probe task in monkeys.

Humans innately perceive infantile features as cute. The ethologist Konrad Lorenz proposed that the infantile features of mammals and birds, known as the baby schema (kindchenschema), motivate caretaking behaviour. As biologically relevant stimuli, newborns are likely to be processed specially in terms of visual attention, perception, and cognition. Recent demonstrations on human participants have shown visual attentional prioritisation to newborn faces (i.e., newborn faces capture visual attention). Although characteristics equivalent to those found in the faces of human infants are found in nonhuman primates, attentional capture by newborn faces has not been tested in nonhuman primates. We examined whether conspecific newborn faces captured the visual attention of two Japanese monkeys using a target-detection task based on dot-probe tasks commonly used in human visual attention studies. Although visual cues enhanced target detection in subject monkeys, our results, unlike those for humans, showed no evidence of an attentional prioritisation for newborn faces by monkeys. Our demonstrations showed the validity of dot-probe task for visual attention studies in monkeys and propose a novel approach to bridge the gap between human and nonhuman primate social cognition research. This suggests that attentional capture by newborn faces is not common to macaques, but it is unclear if nursing experiences influence their perception and recognition of infantile appraisal stimuli. We need additional comparative studies to reveal the evolutionary origins of baby-schema perception and recognition

Here’s Looking at You Kid: Preferential Attention to Same and Other Race Infant Faces Does Not Overcome the Other Race Effect

Given the attentional and motivational saliency of infant faces, triggered by a set of perceptual baby schema features, other-race infants may overcome the processing limitations associated with the Other Race Effect (ORE). Using an attentional bias paradigm, I found that while there was a same-race attentional bias for adult faces, there was no difference in attention bias between same- and other-race infants suggesting that other-race infants have the ability to overcome the attentional limitations associated with processing other-race faces. To directly measure the ORE, I used a recognition memory test to measure encoding differences between same- and other-race infant and adult faces. Regardless of age, same-race faces were better remembered than other-race faces. Further, regardless of race, adult faces were better remembered than infant faces, a finding consistent with an Other Age Effect. Results from the recognition task were validated with differences in Event Related Potentials which found that infant faces may not have been configurally processed as indexed by changes in the N170 and P2 components. However, evidence of infants’ saliency was marked by an increased response of the Late Positive Component (LPC), which supports the findings from the attention experiment. Taken together, these experiments suggest that the saliency of baby schema does not fully overcome the processing limitations of the ORE

ドウブツ ノ ヨウジ ズシキ ニ カンレンスル トクセイ ガ エンジョ ヨウセイ ノ ゲンイン キゾク オヨビ エンジョ コウドウ ニ アタエル エイキョウ

本研究は、動物の幼児図式に関連する特性が人間の援助行動における帰属論的生起過程に与える影響について検討するため、犬の画像を用いた場面想定法による質問紙調査を行った。犬画像は幼児図式に関連する特性を持つ画像と持たない画像を用い、文章で提示された援助状況において、援助要請の原因に対する犬の統制可能性、回答者の哀れみ感情及び怒り感情、援助選択の有無を問う項目を測定した。回答者は学部生、大学院生289名（男性145名・女性144名）であった。調査の結果、犬の幼児図式に関連する特性は帰属認知に対して影響を与えておらず、また帰属認知の生起感情、援助行動に対する影響も非常に弱いことが示された。その一方で、幼児図式に関連する特性が哀れみ感情、援助選択に対して直接的に影響し、また哀れみ感情を媒介し援助選択に影響する間接的影響についても認められており、いずれも幼児図式に関連する特性が人間の援助行動を促進する方向で作用することが示された。これらの結果は、幼児図式に関連する特性が帰属論的生起過程の先行要因に影響することなく、人間の感情、行動に影響を与え、援助行動を促進することを示すものである。The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of animal’s trait related to baby schema on the help-giver’s attribution of the help-needed situation and their helping behavior. In the questionnaire, pictures of dogs either with or without traitd related to baby schema and a description of the help-needed situation was provided. Participants, 289 undergraduate and graduate students (145 males and 144 females), rated dog’s controllability of the help-needed situation, the level of feeling pity and angry, and whether or not they will help the animal. The results indicated that the trait related to dog’s baby schema didn’t have an effect on participant’s attributional cognition, and the effect of attributional cognition on emotion and helping behavior was very weak. At the same time, two effects of interest were found: a direct effect of dog’s baby schema on pity emotion and helping behavior, and an indirect effect that a helping behavior was mediated by pity emotion. In sum, both effects indicate that the trait related to baby schema promoted human’s helping behavior. These results suggested that the trait related to baby schema has a large effect on human’s emotion and promotes human’s helping behavior, without affecting attributions of the help-needed situation

Reported maternal tendencies predict the reward value of infant facial cuteness, but not cuteness detection

The factors that contribute to individual differences in the reward value of cute infant facial characteristics are poorly understood. Here we show that the effect of cuteness on a behavioral measure of the reward value of infant faces is greater among women reporting strong maternal tendencies. By contrast, maternal tendencies did not predict women’s subjective ratings of the cuteness of these infant faces. These results show, for the first time, that the reward value of infant facial cuteness is greater among women who report being more interested in interacting with infants, implicating maternal tendencies in individual differences in the reward value of infant cuteness. Moreover, our results indicate that the relationship between maternal tendencies and the reward value of infant facial cuteness is not due to individual differences in women’s ability to detect infant cuteness. This latter result suggests that individual differences in the reward value of infant cuteness are not simply a byproduct of low cost, functionless biases in the visual system

Revisiting the baby schema by a geometric morphometric analysis of infant facial characteristics across great apes

Infants across species are thought to exhibit specific facial features (termed the “baby schema”, such as a relatively bigger forehead and eyes, and protruding cheeks), with an adaptive function to induce caretaking behaviour from adults. There is abundant empirical evidence for this in humans, but, surprisingly, the existence of a baby schema in non-human animals has not been scientifically demonstrated. We investigated which facial characteristics are shared across infants in five species of great apes: humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, mountain gorillas, and Bornean orangutans. We analysed eight adult and infant faces for each species (80 images in total) using geometric morphometric analysis and machine learning. We found two principal components characterizing infant faces consistently observed across species. These included (1) relatively bigger eyes located lower in the face, (2) a rounder and vertically shorter face shape, and (3) an inverted triangular face shape. While these features are shared, human infant faces are unique in that the second characteristic (round face shape) is more pronounced, whereas the third (inverted triangular face shape) is less pronounced than other species. We also found some infantile features only found in some species. We discuss future directions to investigate the baby schema using an evolutionary approach

Perceiving infant faces

Evolutionary theories have long been used to generate testable predictions about responses to adult facial cues in the contexts of mate choice, cooperation, and intrasexual competition, among others. More recently, researchers have also used evolutionary theories to guide research on responses to infant facial cues. Here we review some of this work, focusing on research investigating hormonal regulation of responses to infant facial cuteness and the role of kinship cues in perceptions of infant faces. These studies suggest that sex hormones have dissociable effects on the reward value of and perceptual sensitivity to infant facial cuteness. They also suggest that attitudes and behavior toward infants displaying cues of kinship are complex processes influenced by individual differences