Babyfaceness

Leslie A. Zebrowitz

Babyfaceness refers to a configuration of facial qualities that differentiates babies from adults. A baby's head is characterized by a large cranium with a perpendicular forehead and small lower face with a receding chin. Compared with adults, babies also have relatively large eyes, full cheeks, fine eyebrows, and a “pug” nose. Although the appearance of babies defines babyish facial qualities, babyfaceness is not synonymous with age. At every age level, including infancy and older adulthood, some individuals are more babyfaced than others. Thus, a more babyfaced adult could be younger or older than one who is more maturefaced. More babyfaced individuals share certain features with babies, such as rounder faces, larger eyes, smaller noses, higher foreheads, and smaller chins. There are babyfaced and maturefaced individuals of both sexes, although women's facial anatomy tends to resemble that of babies more than men's does. Babyfaced individuals also are found among people of ...

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