Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition
by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler
015 Baby-Face Bias
A tendency to see things with baby-faced features as having the characteristics of babies.
People and things with round features, large eyes, small noses, high foreheads, short chins, and light hair and skin are perceived to be baby-like and as such are perceived to have baby-like personality attributes: naivete, helplessness, honesty, and innocence. Large, round heads and eyes appear to be the strongest facial cues contributing to the bias.1
The baby-face bias applies to all anthropomorphic things, including people, animals, cartoon characters, and products such as bottles, appliances, and vehicles. And because the baby-face bias is an innate versus a learned bias, baby-face features are more resistant to habituation than ...
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