Women's gender roles affect their visual interest in different infant facial expressions

Abstract

The present study tested whether women's gender roles were associated with interest in infants and examined the influence of infants' facial expressions on women's interest in them. Eye movements were measured in childless female undergraduates through presentations of adult and infant faces with three kinds of expressions. Nulliparous women had general visual preferences toward infant faces. Moreover, neutral infant facial expressions gained most attentional bias than smiling and crying infant faces compared to adult facial expressions. We assumed that gender roles might affect individual differences in women's interest in infants; results showed that masculinity affected women's visual attentional bias toward infants. Further, masculinity had a consistent negative effect on viewing preference toward infants regardless of their expressions. Atypical gender roles thus play an important role in women's differing interests in and caregiving behavior toward infants. We believe a better grasp of gender role effects and infant facial expression influences can improve our understanding of women's interests toward infants.