Do infants prefer beauty, or do they have a taste for the bizarre?

Abstract

Do babies have an inherent sense of the aesthetic? That's been the opinion of many since the studies of Langlois showing that babies prefer attractive faces to those considered unattractive by adults. This in turn has been taken as evidence that there is a biological basis to human facial preferences, explaining why we in general can agree on what is pleasing to the eye. However, in a recent paper, Gillian Rhodes and colleagues at the University of Western Australia suggest something rather different [ 1. Rhodes G. et al. Are average and symmetric faces attractive to infants? Discrimination and looking preferences. Perception. 2002; 31: 315-321 Crossref PubMed Scopus (68) Google Scholar ]. Novelty, not beauty, might ring a baby's bell. Rhodes et al. reasoned that, if babies prefer faces rated as attractive by adults, then they should prefer both average and symmetric faces, as these form the perceptual basis for adult assessments of attractiveness. Using a preferential looking-time paradigm, they showed computer-morphed female faces to 6-month-old infants, under four different conditions: manipulated to be ‘low average’, ‘high average’, ‘low symmetric’ and ‘perfectly symmetric’. Contrary to prediction, however, they found that the babies did not show a preference for average faces, but instead looked longest at those of low averageness. They also showed a weak preference for low-symmetry faces over perfect symmetry. Their mothers, on the other hand, strongly preferred the symmetrical and average faces, considering these to be most attractive.