What can face preference in newborns tell us about their face representation? Contrasting learned familiarity with...

Possible mechanisms behind newborn face preferences are debated, including innate templates, top-heavy bias, focus on eyes, and rapid learning explanations. This study examined whether White 2- to 5-day-olds (recruited in France between 2012 and 2015) prefer adult over neonate faces with same-race (White) and other-race (Chinese) faces. Newborns viewed adult and neonate faces of the same race (n = 21, 5 females) and other race (n = 22, 10 females). To assess the role of image features, same-race faces were presented upside down (n = 23, 10 females). Newborns preferred adult faces with upright same-race faces (Cohen's d = 0.95), but not with other-race or inverted faces, supporting an account based on familiarity rather than structural bias or feature-based attention.