Children's judgements of facial hair are influenced by biological development and experience

Nicole L Nelson; Siobhan Kennedy-Costantini; Anthony J Lee; Barnaby J W Dixson

doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2019.06.002

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Children's judgements of facial hair are influenced by biological development and experience

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Children's judgements of facial hair are influenced by biological development and experience

Nicole L Nelson, Siobhan Kennedy-Costantini, Anthony J Lee and Barnaby J W Dixson

Evolution and Human Behavior, Vol.40(6), pp.551-556

2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2019.06.002

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Abstract

Child development

Dominance

Evolution

Face perception

Facial hair

Adults use features such as facial hair to judge others' social dominance and mate value, but the origin of these judgments is unknown. We sought to determine when these associations develop, which associations develop first, and whether they are associated with early exposure to bearded faces. We presented pairs of bearded and clean-shaven faces to children (2–17 years old; N = 470) and adults (18–22 years; N = 164) and asked them to judge dominance traits (strength, age, masculinity) and mate choice traits (attractiveness, parenting quality). Young children associated beardedness with dominance traits but not mate choice traits. This pattern became more extreme during late childhood and gradually shifted toward adult-like responses during early adolescence. Responses for all traits were adult-like in late adolescence. Finally, having a bearded father was associated with positive judgments of bearded faces for mate choice traits in childhood and both mate choice and dominance traits in adolescence.

Details

Title: Children's judgements of facial hair are influenced by biological development and experience
Authors: Nicole L Nelson (Corresponding Author) - The University of Queensland
Siobhan Kennedy-Costantini (Author) - University of Auckland
Anthony J Lee (Author) - University of Stirling
Barnaby J W Dixson (Author) - The University of Queensland
Publication details: Evolution and Human Behavior, Vol.40(6), pp.551-556
Publisher: Elsevier Inc.
Date published: 2019
DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2019.06.002
ISSN: 1879-0607; 1090-5138
Organisation Unit: Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Health - Psychology; School of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Legacy
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99629740302621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Behavioral Sciences; Psychology, Biological; Social Sciences, Biomedical