Infant-Like Characteristics and Gender on Perception and Empathic Concern

Abstract

Infant-like physical characteristics have implications for the way individuals are perceived. These features (larger heads, rounder faces, bigger eyes, and higher eyebrows; Berry & McArthur, 1985) elicit affective and cognitive responses reminiscent of vulnerable offspring. Those presented with infant-like targets have reported heightened empathic concern in response to a person in need compared to those presented with mature faces (Lishner et al., 2008). In addition, prior studies have posited that individuals with infant-like features engender positive appraisals (Buckels et al., 2015), while also being regarded as more childlike socially, intellectually, and physically (Berry & McArthur, 1985; Zebrowitz & Montepare, 1992). However, the greater prevalence of infant-like features in women compared to men suggests potential differences in consequences resulting from these features. The current study aimed to address this gap in the research, tackle issues of replicability, and update earlier paradigms. In doing so, the goal was to understand the effect of infant-like characteristics on both empathic concern and the perceptions of competency and childlike traits for both female and male targets. The findings indicate the presence of infant-like characteristics did not impact how much empathic concern participants had or how competent or childlike the person appeared to be regardless of whether the target was male or female. These findings emphasize how essential replication is and the need for investigation of established phenomena under varied conditions.