Researchers in England have reported that women are more sensitive than men to signifiers of cutness in babies that include chubby cheeks, button noses, and big eyes. Apparently women scored more highly than men at selecting a computer-generated composite image that blended the features linked most highly with cuteness over another image, also computer-generated, showing a sad little hypotethical baby lacking said features. Men (and menopausal women, it should be added) apparently saw little difference between the two. The drop-off in women's sensitivity to cuteness when they enter menopause leads the researchers to hypothesize that the cause for any gender difference in cute-fancying is hormonal, rather than societal, in nature.
I have to wonder, though: if this heightened sensitivity to cuteness is being somehow linked to a so-called maternal instinct, wouldn't that indicate a kind of skewed instinct? I mean, what about mothers whose babies aren't so cute? Do they exhibit less attraction, less bonding, less devotion? What kind of maternal instinct would that be? On the contrary, in our house it's I, the woman, who seems to believe that nearly every baby is just incredibly cute, while my husband, the man, makes fine distinctions between babies who are and babies who, regrettably, kind of aren't. I like to think this means I'm more maternal than he is, more willing to take a baby as it comes and love it up, rather than hold it at arm's length if its cheeks are quite up to the chubbiness quotient my hormones have prompted me to desire. In other words, isn't "maternal instinct" (if it exists at all) related to the ability to love even a very sad-looking little baby, the Charlie Brown Christmas tree of babies, just as if it were straight from central casting?
At the very end of the BBC article reporting the study, a small sad hint at the ugly side of all this:
Further research will explore whether cuteness sensitivity is a factor in post-natal depression.
Would that mean that post-partum depression arises out of having a not-quite-cute-enough infant, or from having an under-developed ability to perceive the cuteness of the baby in one's arms? I await their findings with a skeptical eye.
More by this author:
Biracial Twins -- Is One "Black" and One "White"?
Death by Peanut: Epidemic or Urban Myth?
Is This Baby Obese? Aussie Mom Says No
Baby Nearly Starves to Death, Diluted Formula to Blame
