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Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome
Published on: July 31, 2016
Are effects of emotion expression on trait impressions mediated by babyfaceness? Evidence from connectionist modeling
Leslie A Zebrowitz1, Masako Kikuchi, Jean-Marc Fellous
1Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, USA. zebrowitz@brandeis.edu
Abstract:
Two studies provided evidence that bolsters the Marsh, Adams, and Kleck hypothesis that the morphology of certain emotion expressions reflects an evolved adaptation to mimic babies or mature adults. Study 1 found differences in emotion expressions' resemblance to babies using objective indices of babyfaceness provided by connectionist models that are impervious to overlapping cultural stereotypes about babies and the emotions. Study 2 not only replicated parallels between impressions of certain emotions and babies versus adults but also showed that objective indices of babyfaceness partially mediated impressions of the emotion expressions. babyface effects were independent of strong effects of attractiveness, and babyfaceness did not mediate impressions of happy expressions, to which the evolutionary hypothesis would not apply.
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