
Studies of Psychology and Behavior >
Babyface Effect in Social Attention: The Moderated Effect of Context
Received date: 2025-09-05
Online published: 2026-08-31
Copyright
People tend to show a preference for baby-faced individuals over mature-faced ones (the babyface effect). However, little is known about whether and how this bias operates at early stages of processing, particularly within social attention. Given the central role of the gaze cueing effect (GCE) in social attention, the present study examined the influence of baby-facedness on GCE by systematically manipulating contextual factors. In Experiment 1, a within-block design was used to create a contrast context. The results showed that participants were more likely to follow the gaze direction of male mature-faced faces and female baby-faced faces. In contrast, Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 employed a between-block design and emotional music priming to construct bottom-up and top-down contexts, respectively. In both experiments, the modulatory effect of baby-facedness on GCE was no longer observed. These findings indicate that contextual factors can eliminate babyface-related attentional biases in social interactions. The present study provides empirical support for the eyeTUNE framework and offers practical insights for predicting, modulating, and controlling the babyface effect in real-world applications.
Key words: babyface effect; gaze cueing effect; social attention; context
Yunfei GAO , Xiaoqian HU , Luyao WANG , Jingjing ZHAO , Yonghui WANG . Babyface Effect in Social Attention: The Moderated Effect of Context[J]. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 2026 , 24(4) : 433 -441 . DOI: 10.12139/j.1672-0628.2026.04.001
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