Women are better at spotting a cute baby than men are.
A new study by psychologists at St Andrews University discovered that women could determine a pretty baby instinctively by its chubby cheeks, big round eyes and button nose.
Via computer image manipulation they discovered how subtle variations in attractiveness were picked up differently by the two sexes. Sensitivity to cuteness is apparently affected by female reproductive hormones.
The researchers at St Andrews, along with colleagues at 3 other universities, chose 10 images from a pool of more than 100 baby photos and combined them into a composite of a typically attractive baby face. Then they selected 10 images to create a less appealing baby face shape.
It was found that women aged 19-26 and 45-51 were more sensitive to differences in infant cuteness than men aged 19-26 and 53-60. However, women aged 53-60 performed at the same level as the men when determining the attractiveness of the newborns.
Dr Reiner Sprengelmeyer explained: "Because average age at menopause is 51 years in the UK, these findings suggest the possible involvement of reproductive hormones in cuteness sensitivity ...... Given that cuteness is considered an indicator of being young, helpless, and in need of care, we hypothesise that the ability to detect small variations in the degree of cuteness may have evolved to guide the allocation of necessary maternal resources to the infant."
Further research will explore whether cuteness sensitivity is a factor in post-natal depression.
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