Human Infant Faces Provoke Implicit Positive Affective Responses in Parents and Non-parents Alike

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2013 Nov 28

PMID 24282537

Citations 33

Authors

Vincenzo Paolo Senese

Simona de Falco

Marc H Bornstein

Andrea Caria

Simona Buffolino

Paola Venuti

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Human infants' complete dependence on adult caregiving suggests that mechanisms associated with adult responsiveness to infant cues might be deeply embedded in the brain. Behavioural and neuroimaging research has produced converging evidence for adults' positive disposition to infant cues, but these studies have not investigated directly the valence of adults' reactions, how they are moderated by biological and social factors, and if they relate to child caregiving. This study examines implicit affective responses of 90 adults toward faces of human and non-human (cats and dogs) infants and adults. Implicit reactions were assessed with Single Category Implicit Association Tests, and reports of childrearing behaviours were assessed by the Parental Style Questionnaire. The results showed that human infant faces represent highly biologically relevant stimuli that capture attention and are implicitly associated with positive emotions. This reaction holds independent of gender and parenthood status and is associated with ideal parenting behaviors.

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