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| author | Jennifer Nicole Stein |
| title | Do Adults Make Babyface Overgeneralizations When Perceiving Adults Who Have Down Syndrome? |
| abstract |
Individuals who have the characterizations of a babyface (round face, large eyes, short nose, etc.) are often subject to "babyface overgeneralization."
They are more likely to be treated as innocent, submissive/cooperative, warm, compassionate, gullible, honest and trusting while not being seen as
manipulative or competitive. Individuals who have Down syndrome are typically described as having a babyface. Research has not been performed comparing
the babyface overgeneralization that happens to individuals who have Down syndrome to typically developing individuals who have a neotenous facial structure.
The current study assessed participants' tendency to make these babyface overgeneralizations. Participants were 174 individuals recruited through an online
site, Amazon's MTurk. Participants were randomly assigned to one one of three conditions: a picture of a typically developing adult, a picture of a typically
developing adult who has a babyface, or a picture of an adult who has Down syndrome. After viewing their assigned stimuli, participants were asked 25 questions
designed to assess babyface overgeneralization and familiarity with Down syndrome. Results suggested that differences in judgments lie between the non-babyface
condition and the Down syndrome condition as well as between the babyface condition and the Down syndrome condition, but not between the typically developing
condition and the babyface condition. In the Down syndrome condition, no differences were found between judgments of those who were personally familiar with
Down syndrome and those who were not. If someone has Down syndrome they are more likely to be judged harshly than their typically developing counterpart who
may have similar facial characteristics (a neotenous facial structure). Because Down syndrome is such a prevalent disorder, these judgments may be made
automatically, not based on facial characteristics but instead previous knowledge/lack thereof about the disability.
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| school | The College of Liberal Arts, Drew University |
| degree | B.A. (2018) |
| advisor | Hilary Kalagher |
| committee | Jessica Lakin
Eric Anderson |
| full text | JNStein.pdf |
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