Five-year-old children show cooperative preferences for faces with white sclera
Open accessAbstract
The cooperative eye hypothesis posits that human eye morphology evolved to facilitate cooperation. Although it is known that young children prefer stimuli with eyes that contain white sclera, it is unknown whether white sclera influences children's perception of a partner's cooperativeness specifically. In the current studies, we used an online methodology to present 5-year-old children with moving three-dimensional face models in which facial morphology was manipulated. Children found "alien" faces with human eyes more cooperative than faces with dark sclera (Study 2) but not faces with enlarged irises (Study 1). For more human-like faces (Study 3), children found human eyes more cooperative than either enlarged irises or dark sclera and found faces with enlarged irises cuter (but not more cooperative) than eyes with dark sclera. Together, these results provide strong support for the cooperative eye hypothesis.
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The preference for white sclera emerges in early developmental age.
“the preference for white sclera emerges in early developmental age [43].”
From Are dark-eyed dogs favoured by humans? Domestication as a potential driver of iris colour difference between dogs and wolves (2023) · cites this paper as [43]
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
The adaptive significance of human scleral brightness: an experimental study
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- Authors
- Wolf, W., Thielhelm, J., & Tomasello, M.
- Affiliations
- Duke University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wolf, Wouter
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2023-01
- Volume
- 225
- Pages
- 105532
- ISSN
- 0022-0965 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4292682883
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 3.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Child Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Duke University
- Jacobs Foundation
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- eye morphology, cooperation, facial attractiveness, cuteness, evolution of cooperation
- MeSH terms
- Child, Preschool, Cooperative Behavior, Eye Movements, Humans, Sclera
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