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Updated: Apr 23, 2026

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm
Published on: May 15, 2019
Female face preference in 4-month-olds: the importance of hairline
Anne Hillairet de Boisferon1, Lesley Uttley2, Paul C Quinn3
1LPNC (CNRS UMR 5105) - Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France.
Abstract:
At 3-4 months of age, infants respond to gender information in human faces. Specifically, young infants display a visual preference toward female over male faces. In three experiments, using a visual preference task, we investigated the role of hairline information in this bias. In Experiment 1, we presented male and female composite faces with similar hairstyles to 4-month-olds and observed a preference for female faces. In Experiment 2, the faces were presented, but in this instance, without hairline cues, and the preference was eliminated. In Experiment 3, using the same cropping to eliminate hairline cues, but with feminized female faces and masculinized male faces, infants' preference toward female faces was still not in evidence. The findings show that hairline information is important in young infants' preferential orientation toward female faces.
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