Lorenz’s classic ‘baby schema’: a useful biological concept?

Abstract

Konrad Lorenz introduced the concept of a ‘baby schema’, suggesting that infants have specific physical features, such as a relatively large head, large eyes and protruding cheeks, which function as an innate releaser to promote caretaking motivation from perceivers. Over the years, a large body of research has been conducted on the baby schema. However, there are two critical problems underpinning the current literature. First, the term ‘baby schema’ lacks consistency among researchers. Some researchers use the term baby schema to refer to infant stimuli (often faces) in comparison with adults (categorical usage), while others use the term to refer to the extent that features contribute to cuteness perception (spectrum usage). Second, cross-species continuity of the ‘baby schema’ has been assumed despite few empirical demonstrations. The evolutionary and comparative relevance of the concept is, therefore, debatable, and we cannot exclude the possibility that extreme sensitivity to the baby schema is a uniquely human trait. This article critically reviews the state of the existing literature and evaluates the significance of the baby schema from an evolutionary perspective.