Adults’ perceptions of infants depicted through names and photographs

Document Type

Poster

Department

Psychology

Conference Title

International Conference on Infant Studies

Location

Baltimore, MD

Date of Presentation

3-1-2010

Abstract

Previous studies have found that adults perceive other adults, college students, and children differently based on their names. A separate line of research has determined that the physical appearance of infants, children, and adults elicits differential perceptions from others. The goal of the present study was to determine how adults’ perceptions of infants are influenced by infants’ names and physical appearance, both separately and in combination. Male (N=148) and female (N=461) college students, recruited from introductory psychology classes, rated the personality and behavioral characteristics of three male and three female infants. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups. One group (N=127) rated infants based only on the infants’ names, another group (N=94) rated infants based only on photographs, and the third group (N=388) rated infants based on photographs with names, using combinations of the names and photographs rated by the first two groups. Ratings were summed to create a “positive traits” rating. The mean of these ratings across participants was calculated for each name alone, each photograph alone, and each namephotograph combination. The average positive traits rating of the name-photograph combination was significantly predicted by the average rating of the photograph included in the combination, r(58) = .51, p < .001, but not by the average rating of the name included in the combination, r(58) = .08, p > .05. Results indicate that infants’ physical appearance is more predictive of adults’ general perceptions of infants than are infants’ names. These results are consistent with other research supporting the salience of physical appearance in interpersonal perceptions.

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