Adults' responses to infants varying in appearance of age and attractiveness

The relations among age appearance, facial attractiveness, and adult expectations of the developmental maturity of infants were examined in 3 studies. In Study 1, a relation was demonstrated between ratings of the attractiveness (77 judges) and age appearance (53 judges) of 6-month-olds: less attractive infants were judged to be older than their attractive age-mates. In Study 2, 75 parents judged the specific developmental abilities of 6-month-old infants and estimated the age of the babies. Parents overestimated both the age and the developmental abilities of the unattractive infants. Furthermore, ability estimates for the unattractive infants were significantly higher than judgments of the typical abilities of 6-month-olds made by another group of 35 parents. Finally, the results of Study 2 were replicated in Study 3 conducted with 348 mothers. It was also demonstrated in Study 3 that, although mothers expected unattractive infants to be capable of more specific developmental skills, they nevertheless rated the general competence of the unattractive infants to be lower than that of attractive infants. Specious contradictions in the attractiveness and age appearance literatures are resolved by these results: age appearance seems to function as an informational cue with respect to specific age-appropriate abilities, whereas attractiveness elicits evaluative attributions of general competence. Both types of information conveyed in faces may have important implications for adult evaluations of infants and older children.