# data[].attributes.body
Aim - to investigate at what age children can differentiate between attractive and unattractive faces.

Sample consists of 4 groups of 4 participants each (2 male, 2 female)

Group 1 ages 2-3
Group 2 ages 4-5
Group 3 ages 6-7
Group 4 ages 8-9

The process will be a lab experiment

Type of sampling: Volunteer

Method:
Children will enter the laboratory individually. Groups will be tested separately at different times each, starting with the youngest group.

Parents are allowed to be accompany their children but are not allowed to communicate or physically touch them to lead them in any direction.

Each child is shown 4 slides each. Each slide has 2 images, one attractive, and another less attractive face, on the left and right sides of the slide. The experimenter will always ask the question: "Which person do you think looks nicer?" and will instruct the child to point at the face they prefer. Each slide is repeated with the same procedure. The order of attractiveness in the two images is randomly selected

Variables:

Controlled Variable:
- The slides (and order of them) shown to all children
- The ratio of boys to girls

Independent Variable:
- The age group of the child

Dependant Variable:
- The face chosen in each slide by each child

The data collection is qualitative and is recorded by:

- The number of correct faces each child selected
- The number of correct faces each age group selected
- The average number of correct selection per each age group

# data[].attributes.body
Aim - to investigate whether infants and young children could differentiate between attractive and unattractive faces.

Sample is 8 groups of 10 participants

Group 1 - aged 1-2
Group 2 aged 2-3
Group 3 aged 3-4
Group 4 aged 4-5
Group 5 aged 5-6
Group 6 aged 6-7
Group 7 aged 7-8
Group 8 aged 8-9

The participants come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds

Laboratory experiment

Procedure (Method):
Infants/young children are brought into the laboratory accompanied by parents.
Parents go off into a seperate room and are not allowed to communicate in any way.
All the infants are seated in the same room.
A buzzer goes off in order to grab their attention
They are subsequently shown all of the images of the women and then all of the men.
The order of attractiveness is always random

Data collection methods
Quantitative - attractiveness score given on a scale of 1-10
Qualitative - any comments made, e.g reasons why they did/did not find pictures attractiveness (if they are able to do so)

Parents are free to retract their children and leave at any point during the experiment and children can return to their parents if they are in any distress.

# data[].attributes.body
Aim: To see  whether they are able to differentiate which one is an attractive or unattractive face.

Sample: 4 groups, containing 12 children in each group, where there will be 6 boys and 6 girls.

Group 1- children aged 6 months - 12 months

Group 2- children aged 1 years old- 3 years old

Group 3--children aged 4 years old-6 years old

Group 4 -children aged 7 years old- 9 years old

Procedure:

The experiment will be conducted at the child's home so the environment would be familiar to the child, where the parent would be present in the room, sitting next to the child to ensure the child is comfortable. The parents will inform the child to look at the images where each child will be shown 10 images, 5 that has been rated as attractive and 5 unattractive (mixed randomly of female and male) but the same matching pair (so female and male, where it can be in different order), through a projection. It will be displayed to the top quality to ensure every detail of the face is present. The room will be bare to prevent any signs of distractions. Each child will be timed 30 seconds with a timer. For children between the ages of 6 months to 4 years old, we will ask them to nod or point to the image that is attractive and to fold their arms when the image is unattractive. And for the children aged 6 to 9 years old the procedure is similar but the experimenter will treat them equally and (remove demand characteristics) ask them how which image is attractive and unattractive and why they choose the image.Then from the results we will see which group recognized the type of attractiveness for the image.

Results/data collection

Quantitative: Number of children that picked attractive men and women scored out 5.
Qualitative: Reason why did they choose  the image as attractive or unattractive

Variables:

Dependent Variable: The image that represents the type of attractiveness the child picks

Independent Variable: The image attractiveness

Control

We will prevent the parent from interfering (they will sit side by side, but are to look in the opposite direction).

The amount of time the child is seeing the image.

The same matching pairs of the images shown.

# data[].attributes.headline
lojain / facial attractiveness and children (experiment)

# data[].attributes.subject
lojain / facial attractiveness and children (experiment)

# data[].attributes.body
Aim: To find out if infants could differentiate between an attractive face and an unattractive one.
The second aim is to find out at what age do they develop these abilities.

Sample: Four sets of groups. Each containing 12 kids, meaning 48 kids in total. In each group, 6 children will be girls and 6 will be boys. The sample will be obtained from a nursery/elementary school with (ideally) international kids and the neighborhood adjacent to that school.

Group 1: 12 kids aged 7-8 months.
Group 2: 12 kids aged 1.
Group 3: 12 kids aged between 2 and 3 years old.
Group 4: 12 kids aged between 4-6 years old.

Procedure: The experiment will be conducted at the childrens' home. None of the children can be related. They will be guided by either parent, but preferably their mother. For the children between seven months and 1 year, two pictures will be placed in front of them during play time. One picture will be of an attractive face and one of an unattractive one. The two models in the pictures will be of the same gender. If the child does not reach out to pick either picture, the parent will loosely dangle both pictures in front or above them, so as to stimulate the action. The child will be given 5 minutes before being introduced to a new set - this time two models of the different gender (for e.g. first it will be 2 female models, and then it will be 2 male models). This will be repeated every day for a week with different models each time.

With the children aged above 7 months to 1 year, they will go through a similar procedure except the parent will engage with them and ask the following question: "Which picture (or face) do you like better?"

The results will be noted down quantitatively in the form of the structure below:
Child's pick with female models: Attractive (x/7) Unattractive (x/7)
Child's pick with male models: Attractive (x/7) Unattractive (x/7)

Controls:
The gender of the model in the two pictures.
How long the child is exposed to the stimuli (the picture).
The question that the parent asks.
The setting in which this experiment happens.
How long, for the little toddlers, the parent dangles the pictures above or in front of them.
The difference in attractiveness between the two models (for e.g. you canont, with one set, have one model SLIGHTLY more attractive than the other and with another set, have one model be extremely more attractive than the other)

Independent variable: The model's degree of attractiveness.
Dependent variable: Which picture the child goes for/picks.

# data[].attributes.body
Aim of the study - To see at which age children begin to differentiate between attractive and unnactractive faces
Sample: 5 groups, 10 children in each, half boys half girls
Group 1 - children aged 6 months - a year
Group 2 - children aged a year - 2 years
Group 3 - children aged 2 years - 3 years
Group 4 - children ages 3 year - 4 years
Group 5 - children aged 4 years upwards (limit 8 years)
Variables: Dependant variable - The picture from the pair which the child tends to show more interest in (any sign of interest)
Independant variables - The two pictures will be different each time e.g. hair colour and style, symmetrical face or not, unattractive and attractive
Controls - The pairs of pictures shown to the children
- The time the children spend looking at the pictures
- Pictures shown in same order for every child
- Children will be supervised before and after the experiment to make sure they dont speak to each other
Method: Children will be taken from nursery/class with the parents and teachers consent. They will be put into a room by themselves and told by their teacher that they will be shown 10 pairs of faces and all they have to do is look. Each child will have 30 seconds to look at each pair and they will be tested on how much interest they show in either one of the pictures. After they have finished they will be sent to a quiet room where they will be told to stay quiet until their group has finished. The results will be analysed for each group and it we will see which group first starts to differentiate / show signs of interest in the attractive faces first.
Data collection: Quantitative - whether the child showed interest or not and whether the interest was in the attractive face or not
Qualitative - the signs of interest that each child showed.

# data[].attributes.body
Aim of the study - To investigate whether infants/children naturally prefer average faces that represent people they see everyday or whether they prefer faces from the media (E.g. famous people from magazines) depending also on how old they are.

The sample: 3 groups, 14 children in each group (7 boys and 7 girls)
Group 1 - Children aged 1 - 2.5 years of age
Group 2 - Children aged 4 - 5.5 years of age
Group 3 - Children aged 7 - 8.5 years of age
There will be a total of 42 children overall, with full consent from their parents to use up at maximum 1 hour of their children's time.

Variables:
Dependent Variable: The picture the child points at or looks at the longest.
Independent Variable:
15 pictures per category:
Average face - (Non-famous person)
Face from the media - (Famous person)
30 pairs overall will be compared.

Experimental Design:
Field experiment

Procedure of the study:
We will ask permission of the nursery/primary school to set up in a natural environment for the children, so that they feel comfortable and not under any pressure in order to  keep full control of the study.
We will have 3 different sections to speed the process up, as we will simultaneously show the pictures to each group, child by child (girls first, boys last). There will be 3 people in the section testing the child one by one (2 males with timers calculating how long the child looks at the one picture, 1 female briefing the child on what is happening and the information they need to go through with the experiment
We will show the two pictures (1 Average, 1 Media) and kindly ask the child to point or look at the picture they like to look at more. If they don't want to point or pick which one, we shall calculate how long they stare at one of the pictures, which we will place in front of them for 30 seconds. We will know which picture is preferred when we see which picture gets the longest stair in the 30 seconds we show the pictures for. The oldest group (group 3) will be old enough to grasp what we are asking of them, so we will treat them as equals and no need to talk down to them, in order to avoid intimidation at all costs.

Control:
- We will always show the pictures in the same order and no delay.
- We would like to avoid the children talking about the experiment with each other, so we shall let them go back to class after they are finished with the experiment.
- Ensure that in the 3 sections we use, the same background is there and make sure that there are no objects that could alter their focus on the experiment.
- After we have tested them the first time, we will test them once more in order to make sure that the children aren't just looking at one side of the table down to nerves or if they feel uncomfortable.

Data Collection:
Qualitative data: Observant upon the child's response (Verbal, or physical movement while looking at the 2 pictures.
Quantitative data: The amount of time calculated if the child doesn't point at which picture they prefer to look at.

# data[].attributes.body
Aim: To investigate whether children are naturally conditioned to prefer a specific type of face and facial feature.

Sample: 4 groups, 10 Children in each group. ( 5 boys and 5 girls)
Group 1- Children ages 8-12 months
Group 2- Children ages 2-4 years
Group 3- Children ages 5-6 years
Group 4 Children ages 7-8 years
Total of 40 children all over, all taken with parents consent for a 1 hour experiment.

Independent Variable:
The 10 pairs of pictures with different facial features,
blue eyes vs brown eyes
oval face vs heart shaped face
blonde vs brunette
beard vs clean shaven
straight vs crooked nose
an overall of 20 pictures total

Dependent Variable:
The picture the child looks at the longest.

Method:
Children are asked for 10 minutes away from their lesson or day care, they experiment is done there as it's a familiar environment to them, to avoid intimidation.
For all groups each child is taken individually for  10 minutes on the corner to participate in the experiment.
Each child is shown a two pictures held side by side together, we time how long the child looks at each picture before moving on to the next pair. This time is measured with a timer.
The instructions for group 3 and 4 will be as follows: "we're going to show you a couple of pictures, if that's okay, we wont take long".
Each pair of image is shown for 1 minute.

Control:
The same pairs of images are shown to the children, in the same order.

To avoid children conferring about the images with one another with perhaps the elder group of children, we'd have each child leave the classroom for break early after the 10 minutes are done.

Data collection:
Quantitative Data- The timed response
Qualitative Data- Any facial expressions or verbal responses seen from the children

# data[].attributes.body
Aim: To see if infants (like adults) prefer mathematically averaged faces. Previous studies conducted usually compare unattractive faces with attractive faces and all of these studies  proved that infants preferred attractive faces over unattractive faces. In this study unattractive faces would be paired up with averaged faces to determine if infants would demonstrate a preference for averaged faces that is similar to attractive faces.

Sample: 40 6-month old healthy infants (20 girls, 20 boys)

IV: 10 pictures of Caucasian females showed to the infants
DV: For how long the infant looked at the picture and his/ her reaction

Experimental design: Lab study

Procedure
10 pictures showed to the infant (5 unattractive and 5 average pictures). Pictures chosen based on the rating 50 University students gave these 10 Caucasian women and the the mean rating is calculated.
Based on the mean rating, its determined if the women are unattractive or average.
The experiment is conducted in a lab while the child is sat on their parents' lap.
The pictures are projected on a screen, 36 in away from where the child is sat. The room is dark so the child doesn't get distracted by other things.
The experimenter observed the reaction and for how long the child looked at the picture on a television monitor connected to a video camera placed directly in front of the infant and below the projector screen.
To avoid experimental bias, the experimenter looked away and could not see the stimuli. The parents were also provided with sleeping masks so they could not influence the preference of the infant.
This was done twice for 10 seconds for each set of pictures, the only thing different about the second trial was the side on which the picture was displayed (the picture that appeared on the left for the first trial, appeared on the right for the second trial). This was done to ensure that the infant was actually looking at the pictures rather than just looking at one side.
If the infants were looking at a picture for a longer time  and showed a reaction that demonstrated that they found that specific face more attractive.

Type of data collected: Quantitative- For how long long the child looked at the picture
Qualitative- Their reaction after looking at the pictures.

# data[].attributes.body
Aim: To investigate whether young infants can make perceptions of what is an attractive/unattractive animal face in order to find out whether their perceptions of human faces are based by mate choice or a byproduct of informational processing and whether choices can extend beyond humans.

Sample: 20 6 month old infants. 10=male and 10=female. (none had pet cats)

IV: the showing of pairs attractive/unattractive cat faces - rated by 60 university students (inter rater reliability)
DV: whether the infants rated the cats as attractive or not

Experimental design: Lab study

Method (1)

-  stimuli = 10 coloured pictures of cat faces
- 5 rated as attractive and 5 rated as unattractive
- rated using a 1-5 likert scale
- infants taken into lab by parents
- sat on a chair located 35 cm away from a whiteboard that would have the images of cats projected onto it
- a camera was located on the top of the whiteboard recording the reactions of the infant to the faces
- the attractive faces were always on the left of the board and the unattractive faces on the right side
- two observers were used who were NAIVE to the hypotheses
- they recorded the gaze aversion of the babies towards each side of the board
- if the infants looked at the left side for more than 7 seconds, they were classed as finding this face attractive and vice versa for the unattractive
- also if they smiled when looking at the left side or showed any sign of a concerned facial expression when looking at the right, this further clarified.

Method (2)

Domestic cats are household animals that have been bred by humans as family pets. Therefore, domestic cats may reflect the breeding practices of humans who have chosen to raise cats that they find attractive.

Therefore in the second experiment we will use lion faces.

The procedure undertaken was exactly the same as the first study however faces of attractive and unattractive lions were used, again rated by university students on a 1-5 likert scale