Preference for facial averageness: Evidence for a common mechanism in human and macaque infants

Human adults and infants show a preference for average faces, which could stem from a general processing mechanism and may be shared among primates. However, little is known about preference for facial averageness in monkeys. We used a comparative developmental approach and eye-tracking methodology...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2017-04, Vol.7 (1), p.46303-46303, Article 46303
Main Authors: Damon, Fabrice, Méary, David, Quinn, Paul C., Lee, Kang, Simpson, Elizabeth A., Paukner, Annika, Suomi, Stephen J., Pascalis, Olivier
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/378/2649/1723
631/477
Animal biology
Animals
Animals, Newborn
Eye
Face
Female
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Infants
Life Sciences
Macaca mulatta
Male
multidisciplinary
Neurons and Cognition
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Photic Stimulation
Preferences
Primates
Prototypes
Psychology and behavior
Science
Vertebrate Zoology
Visual Perception
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Summary:Human adults and infants show a preference for average faces, which could stem from a general processing mechanism and may be shared among primates. However, little is known about preference for facial averageness in monkeys. We used a comparative developmental approach and eye-tracking methodology to assess visual attention in human and macaque infants to faces naturally varying in their distance from a prototypical face. In Experiment 1, we examined the preference for faces relatively close to or far from the prototype in 12-month-old human infants with human adult female faces. Infants preferred faces closer to the average than faces farther from it. In Experiment 2, we measured the looking time of 3-month-old rhesus macaques ( Macaca mulatta ) viewing macaque faces varying in their distance from the prototype. Like human infants, macaque infants looked longer to faces closer to the average. In Experiments 3 and 4, both species were presented with unfamiliar categories of faces (i.e., macaque infants tested with adult macaque faces; human infants and adults tested with infant macaque faces) and showed no prototype preferences, suggesting that the prototypicality effect is experience-dependent. Overall, the findings suggest a common processing mechanism across species, leading to averageness preferences in primates.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep46303