Female face preference in 4-month-olds: The importance of hairline

Abstract

At 3 to 4 months of age, infants respond to gender information in human faces. Specifically, young infants display a visual preference toward female over male faces. In three experiments, using a visual preference task, we investigated the role of hairline information in this bias. In Experiment 1, we presented male and female composite faces with similar hairstyles to 4-month-olds and observed a preference for female faces. In Experiment 2, the faces were presented, but in this instance, without hairline cues, and the preference was eliminated. In Experiment 3, using the same cropping to eliminate hairline cues, but with feminized female faces and masculinized male faces, infants’ preference toward female faces was still not in evidence. The findings show that hairline information is important in young infants’ preferential orientation toward female faces.

Asian infants show preference for own-race but not other-race female faces: the role of infant caregiving arrangements

“…Taken together, the present results regarding the female face preference replicated previous findings that infants at 3 months of age show a reliable preference for own-race female faces over own-race male faces ( Quinn et al, 2002 , 2008 ; Hillairet de Boisferon et al, 2014 ). Also, the current findings indicate that the female face preference is present only in 3- and 6-month-olds.…”

“…The finding of a female face preference in 3-month-olds is consistent with previous findings that 3- to 4-month-old Caucasian infants preferred own-race Caucasian female faces over male faces ( Quinn et al, 2002 , 2008 , 2010 ; Hillairet de Boisferon et al, 2014 ). Moreover, by examining female and male caregiving involvement, we found a caregiving bias in favor of females in Asian culture similar to that previously reported in Western culture, in which females form the category of greater experience ( Rennels and Davis, 2008 ; Sugden et al, 2014 ).…”

“…However, the cues used to process gender in own-race faces might not apply to the processing of gender in other-race faces, which results in the disappearance of the gender preference for other-race faces. This perceptual argument is supported by a recent study with Caucasian infants, which reported that hairline is a diagnostic cue for processing the gender of Caucasian faces ( Hillairet de Boisferon et al, 2014 ). However, this cue could not apply for processing the gender of the Asian faces in the present study, given that the hairline and other external facial features were removed.…”

Follow My Gaze: Face Race and Sex Influence Gaze‐Cued Attention in Infancy

“…Here, we extend support for the caregiver bias by showing that infants exhibit increased discrimination of gaze‐cued objects when they are cued by a person who matches the race and sex of the reported primary caregiver. Additional support for this hypothesis comes from studies finding that by 3 months, infants prefer to look at faces which match the sex (Hillairet de Boisferon, Uttley, Quinn, Lee, & Pascalis, ; Quinn et al., ) as well as race (Fassbender et al., ; Liu, Xiao, Quinn, et al., ; Liu, Xiao, Xiao, et al., Quinn et al., ); of their primary caregiver. Based on these findings, as well as a previously reported effect suggesting that early face learning in infancy continues to impact childhood (Hadley, Pickron, & Scott, ), we also predict that the current effects will be long lasting and likely contribute to pervasive adult face biases, such as faster gaze following for own‐race faces (Pavan et al., ) and the other‐race effect (for review Meissner & Brigham, ).…”

Infants’ Individuation of Faces by Gender

“…Neonates differentiate their mother’s face from similar looking female faces [6,17] and reliably discriminate among two similar looking female faces by 3 months of age [18]. Three- and 10-month-old infants look longer towards female than male faces [5,19,20,21] and do this even for prototypical girl versus boy face models [22]. Interestingly, infants raised primarily by males look longer at male faces than female faces [5].…”