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Mothers' responses to infant physical appearance
Author(s) -
Hildebrandt Katherine A.,
Fitzgerald Hiram E.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
infant mental health journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.693
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1097-0355
pISSN - 0163-9641
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0355(198121)2:1<56::aid-imhj2280020109>3.0.co;2-g
Subject(s) - developmental psychology , skin conductance , psychology , infant feeding , infant development , medicine , breast feeding , pediatrics , biomedical engineering
Mothers' responses to slides of infants were assessed. During individual presentations of the slides they showed increases in smiling to infant photographs in general, but showed large skin conductance responses only to pictures of their own infant. They did not look differentially at the photographs. During paired presentations, mothers looked longer at their own infant's photograph. Moreover, they looked longer at unfamiliar infants who they perceived to be high in cuteness. These findings are discussed with reference to the role of infant physical appearance in infant‐adult social relations.