Non-Mammalian Infants Dependent on Parental Care Elicit Greater Kindchenschema-Related Perceptions and Motivations in Humans

Brief Report

Daniel J. Kruger & Steven A. Miller

Human Ethology Bulletin, Volume 31, No 3, 15-24, published September 30, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22330/heb/311/015024

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ABSTRACT

Ethologist Konrad Lorenz (1943) proposed the co-evolution of certain care eliciting characteristics, named Kindchenschema (baby schema), in altricial infants and caregiving responses to these characteristics in parents. Pedomorphic facial characteristics in human infants and adults cue social approach and elicit helping. Lorenz (1943) proposed that Kindchenschema features important for eliciting caregiving are similar across species. This is the first experiment to demonstrate that non-mammalian species dependent on parental care elicit greater Kindchenschema-related perceptions and motivations than infant species in the same class that are not dependent on parental care. Our results complement findings from studies using images of human infants and computer generated/manipulated images as stimuli.

Keywords: Kindchenschema, parental care, pedomorphism, neoteny, precocial.

ISSN: 2224-4476