Children's Attributions of Social Dominance from Facial Cues.

KEATING, CAROLINE F., and BAI, DINA L. Children's Attributions of Social Dominance from Facial Cues. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1986, 57, 1269-1276. Ethological reports of animal dominance signals suggested that certain human brow and mouth gestures would influence the attributions of social dominance made by children. Stimulus photographs depicting adults with lowered brow expressions or without smiles were hypothesized to appear dominant relative to photographs showing adults with raised-brow expressions or with smiles, respectively. In addition, the cross-species record suggested that faces with physiognomic characteristics indicative of physical maturity would also look dominant. In tests of these hypotheses, children between 4 and 7 years of age heard stories describing social dominance interactions and chose photographs of adults who looked like the dominant characters described in the stories. The results confirmed predictions and indicated that human nonverbal dominance signaling may be patterned after that of other species.