Naturally, babies tend to draw their attention to something attractive. It can be moving objects, high-contrast images, or even interesting features of an attractive person. Yes! Babies stare longer at attractive people.
They then presented the pictures to newborn infants and found that all the babies spent more time looking at the prettier faces. In babies' minds, pretty faces help their brains process information and learn about their environment more easily.
Human infants, just a few days of age, are known to prefer attractive human faces. We examined whether this preference is human-specific. Three- to 4-month-olds preferred attractive over unattractive domestic and wild cat (tiger) faces (Experiments 1 and 3).
Psychologists know that babies tend to look in the direction of what interests them most. Using this trait, the scientists demonstrated that even babies a few hours old have a preference for an attractive face.
Science shows babies as young as six months are able to distinguish between good and bad people. Being a new parent means that so many new emotions that you never really considered before being one hundred percent in charge of a growing human being, cross your mind.
Previous research has shown that infants like people who are nice to totally unknown individuals, so it makes sense that they would also like people who are nice to individuals who are similar to them.
Most anecdotal observations suggest that babies show a strong preference for friendly, smiling female faces. And scientific studies that track eye movements and other objective measures confirm this widespread belief, showing that babies do indeed show a strong preference for female faces when compared to male faces.
Why do random babies come to me? there is an old saying that babies and animals can recognize good (loving) people. So it is instinctual on their part, they are sensing that you are a good person, and are coming to you for love, comfort, and security. Don't worry, it's a compliment.
A newborn can focus on your face best from a distance of about an arm's length. Looking at faces can be a form of social interaction. Babies can recognize faces based on head shape, chin shape, and hair length. As babies grow, they learn to distinguish facial features such as the nose, lips, and eyes of another person.
The period that a baby uses to select a primary attachment figure stretches from 2 to over 12 months, with most infants making up their minds in the period between 3 and 7 months. The baby will focus on the person who is most often there for them when needed and who most often gets it right.
Smiling sessions with your baby will become increasingly animated and joyful. When things get too emotionally intense for your baby, they will stop gazing at you, and they will look away for a few moments. This is called gaze aversion, and it shows that your baby's level of arousal is too high.
Babies stare to get to know you…and the world around them!
Babies are fascinated by the movements of your eyes and lips and the amazing coincidence that when you move your mouth, sounds tumble out! And they stare at the world as they try to make out all of the new and exciting sights around them.
"Our research, on a much larger sample of babies than Christenfeld and Hill's, shows that some babies resemble their father more, some babies resemble their mother more, and most babies resemble both parents to about the same extent," says Paola Bressan, a psychologist at the University of Padova in Italy who co- ...
In other words, when your wide-eyed munchkin is gazing intently at something, it's because her brain is processing new information and building a foundation for the world around her.
“The baby is sending signals that they want to attach, they want comfort, and they want an emotional response back,” she says. When you do reciprocate and gaze back with affection, this builds a loving connection between you and your baby.
Well-known parenting expert and author Dr. William Sears made an interesting claim in Parenting as well, suggesting that if a parent has anxiety about a certain person or stranger the baby will pick up on that and react accordingly. You are your baby's social barometer in a sense.
Provide ways for your child to see, hear, feel, move freely and touch you. Your baby will slowly establish trust with you. Slowly move colourful things for your child to see and reach for. A simple, homemade toy, like a rattle, can attract your baby's interest by the sounds it makes.
Newborn infants not only prefer upright facial configurations over non-face-like images, but also prefer their own mother's face over other, unfamiliar female faces (Bushnell, 2001; Bushnell, Sai, & Mullin, 1989; Field, Cohen, Garcia, & Greenberg, 1984; Pascalis, de Schonen, Morton, Deruelle, & Fabre-Grenet, 1995).
The babyface usually refers to adult faces that have a facial feature similar to that of infants (Berry and McArthur, 1985). It is usually defined as a round face with big eyes, high raised eyebrows, a narrow chin and a small nose.
They learn that faces can signal emotions like happy, sad or angry. They learn that faces have names, like “mom”, “dad”, or “auntie.” Finally, babies learn that when mom or dad is looking at something they might want to turn around and look there too.
It happens as your baby develops a healthy attachment to familiar people – like you. Because babies prefer familiar adults, they might react to strangers by crying or fussing, going very quiet, looking fearful or hiding. Fear of strangers starts at 5-6 months and usually becomes more intense at 7-10 months of age.
Do Babies Like Hugs, Kisses, and Other Signs of Affection? Clearly, there are many different ways in which babies express their affection for their parents and caregivers. But do they enjoy being on the receiving end? In short, yes.
Children are naturally curious and they are also drawn to people who feel 'good' to them or who are different and intriguing. They are sensitive and pick up on people's energy. How lovely that you are giving off a vibe that makes them feel safe enough to want to investigate more.