The bonnie baby: experimentally manipulated temperament affects perceived cuteness and motivation to view infant faces

Abstract

Attractive individuals are perceived as having various positive personality qualities. Positive personality qualities can in turn increase perceived attractiveness. However, the developmental origins of the link between attractiveness and personality are not understood. This is important because infant attractiveness ('cuteness') elicits caregiving from adults, and infant personality ('temperament') shapes caregiving behaviour. While research suggests that adults have more positive attitudes towards cuter infants, it is not known whether positive infant temperament can increase the perception of infant cuteness. We investigated the impact of experimentally established infant temperament on adults' perception of cuteness and desire to view individual faces. Ataseline, adults rated the cuteness of, and keypressed to view, images of unfamiliar infants with neutral facial expressions. Training required adults to learn about an infant's 'temperament', through repeated pairing of the neutral infant face with positive or negative facial expressions and vocalizations. Adults then re-rated the original neutral infant faces. Post-training, there were significant changes from baseline: infants who were mostly happy were perceived as cuter and adults expended greater effort to view them. Infants who were mostly sad were not perceived as cuter and adults expended less effort to view them. Our results suggest that temperament has clear consequences for how adults perceive 'bonnie' babies. Perception of infant cuteness is not based on physical facial features alone, and is modifiable through experience.

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

“…The key-press task that we used to measure the reward value of infant facial cuteness has also been used to assess the reward value of infant faces in several previous studies (Charles et al, 2013;Hahn et al, 2013;Parsons et al, 2011Parsons et al, , 2013Yamamoto et al, 2009). In this key-press task, all 20 infant face images (i.e., the high-cuteness and low-cuteness versions of the 10 infant faces) were presented in a fully randomized order.…”

“…Following previous studies of the reward value of infant facial cues (e.g., Hahn et al, 2013;Parsons et al, 2013;Yamamoto et al, 2009), key-press scores for each face were calculated by subtracting the number of key presses made to decrease viewing time from those made to increase viewing time. These key-press scores were used to calculate each participant's cuteness reward score separately for each test session by subtracting the mean key-press score for the low-cuteness versions of infant faces from the mean key-press score for the high-cuteness versions (M=2.63, SD=5.54).…”

“…Reward value was assessed via a standard key-press task similar to those used to assess the reward value of infant faces in previous research (Hahn et al, 2013;Parsons et al, 2013;Yamamoto et al, 2009). Saliva samples were also collected in each test session and analyzed for testosterone, estradiol, and progesterone levels.…”

On Cuteness: Unlocking the Parental Brain and Beyond

“…Crucially, cuteness does not operate alone, and may be influenced by experience. This influence is easily demonstrated in a simple computerised “baby social reward task” where learning about an infant's easy or difficult temperament shifts subsequent cuteness ratings [27]. …”

“…Improving our understanding of the brain processes related to positive and negative infant signals could create opportunities for improving interventions. New learning paradigms derived from neuroscientific findings have already shown considerable promise [27, 79]. For example, the “baby-social-reward-task”, which uses cute sounds and faces, mimics important aspects of caregiving and has been able to shift perceptions of infant temperament [27, 85].…”