Children Like Adorable Dogs, Cats and Human Faces

Even three-year-olds know what is cute and what is not, a new study has found.

The 'baby schema' is the scientific term for cute baby faces. Those large eyes, big round head and a chubby face can make any adult go "aww cute!" A new study suggests that even young children can be influenced by baby schema.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Lincoln, UK and is published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

"This study is important for several reasons. We already knew that adults experience this baby schema effect, finding babies with more infantile features cuter," said Marta Borgi at the Evolution and Development Research Group in the School of Psychology at the University of Lincoln, UK

"Our results provide the first rigorous demonstration that a visual preference for these traits emerges very early during development. Independently of the species viewed, children in our study spent more time looking at images with a higher degree of these baby-like features," Borgi added in a news release.  

Researchers also found that faces of dogs were cuter than faces of cats and even human babies.

The study included children aged between three and six years. Participants were shown images of dogs, cats and humans. Eye tracking devices were used to track the gaze of the children. The longer a child looks at an image, the  more interested it is in the object.

The images used in the study were altered; one set of pictures was made cuter by applying baby schema features, while the other set was manipulated to resemble adult-like features such as a strong nose, small eyes and mouth.

"We have also demonstrated that children are highly attracted to dogs and puppies and we now need to find out if that attractiveness may override children's ability to recognise stress signalling in dogs," said Kerstin Meints, Professor in Developmental Psychology at Lincoln's School of Psychology, who supervised the research. "This study will also lead to further research with an impact on real life, namely whether the 'cuteness' of an animal in rescue centres makes them more or less likely to be adopted."

Cuteness helps babies survive. Previous research has shown that the baby schema motivates adults to take care of babies.