Mischkulnig M
Z Exp Angew Psychol. 1989;36(4):567-78.
Konrad Lorenz first suggested in 1943 that certain physical and behavioral characteristics common to infants (babyishness) serve as cues to attract adult attention and care as well as to decrease the likelihood of aggression. The present study was designed to determine whether the visual stimuli of a baby's face alone are sufficient to reduce anger. The subjects were 60 female students between 18 and 30 years of age. Anger was evoked by setting unsolvable tasks and by noise and maintained by adequate instructions and by continuing noise. Three procedures of measurement (heart rate, retrospective self-report, and interpretation of facial affect by two observers) were designed to show the reactions of the subjects viewing photos of babies and adults. We found a slight increase in heart rate to be an expression of happiness and a massive acceleration to be an expression of anger. The self-report measures and interpretation of facial affect supported the hypothesis that there is a more positive response to infants than to adults, and to cute babies also a more positive one than to less attractive infants. We found weak evidence that babyishness reduces anger. As a consequence of the length of the experiment, subjects who should not be aroused became angry. Thus, it was possible to register a reduction of anger as reaction to cute infants.
康拉德·洛伦兹在1943年首次提出，婴儿所共有的某些身体和行为特征（婴儿特质）可作为吸引成人关注和照顾的线索，同时也能降低被攻击的可能性。本研究旨在确定仅仅是婴儿面部的视觉刺激是否足以减轻愤怒情绪。研究对象为60名年龄在18岁至30岁之间的女学生。通过设置无法解决的任务和制造噪音来引发愤怒情绪，并通过适当的指示和持续的噪音来维持这种情绪。设计了三种测量方法（心率、回顾性自我报告以及两名观察者对面部表情的解读）来展示受试者观看婴儿和成人照片时的反应。我们发现心率略有上升是幸福的一种表现，而大幅加速则是愤怒的一种表现。自我报告测量和对面部表情的解读支持了这一假设，即相较于成人，受试者对婴儿的反应更为积极，而且相较于吸引力较低的婴儿，对可爱婴儿的反应也更为积极。我们发现了微弱的证据表明婴儿特质能减轻愤怒情绪。由于实验时间较长，那些本不应被激怒的受试者变得愤怒起来。因此，有可能记录下作为对可爱婴儿的反应而出现的愤怒情绪减轻的情况。
