title: Female face preference in 4-month-olds: the importance of hairline.
abstract: At 3-4 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.
authors.affiliation: LPNC (CNRS UMR 5105) - Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hillairet de Boisferon
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: Lesley
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Uttley
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Delaware, USA.
authors.forename: Paul C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Quinn
authors.affiliation: Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Kang
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: LPNC (CNRS UMR 5105) - Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France. Electronic address: olivier.pascalis@upmf-grenoble.fr.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Pascalis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003463:Cues; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006197:Hair; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012727:Sex Characteristics
keywords: Face; Gender; Infant; Visual preference