NO CHEEK BIAS FOR NON-PRIMATES: AN INSTAGRAM REPLICATION OF THOMAS ET AL. (2006)

Abstract

Previous research has established that photos of great apes, including humans, show a left cheek bias. As this bias is absent in images of lower primates and other animals, phylo-genetic proximity appears to influence humans’ depictions of nonhuman species. However Thomas et al.’s (2006) finding of a left cheek bias for dogs challenges this argument. As their analyses were underpowered, the present study sought to replicate Thomas et al.’s study with a larger sample to help determine whether human depictions of non-human animals vary as a function of their evolutionary relatedness.Photographs (N=2883) were sourced from Instagram’s ‘Most Recent’ feed using hashtags that matched Thomas et al.’s Google Image search terms: #dog, #cat, #fish, #lizard, #cute- baby, #cryingbaby. The first 401 lateral images for each hashtag were coded for pose orientation (left, right).Replicating Thomas et al., results confirmed a left cheek bias for mammals but not nonmammals. The left cheek bias was driven by images of human infants; there were no cheek biases for images of nonhuman animals (dogs, cats, lizards, fish).As a left cheek bias was evident in photos of primates (#cutebaby, #cryingbaby), but absent for other mammals (#dog, #cat) and nonmammals (#lizard, #fish), the data support the argument that phylogenetic proximity influences posing biases.