From Time magazine, Associated Press:

A new study suggests that women have a harder time than men looking at babies with visible disabilities.

In the study by psychiatrists from the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital and published on online journal PloS One, 27 men and women were shown photos of babies, including some of babies with distinct facial irregularities such as a cleft palate, Down syndrome, or crossed eyes. Participants rated each baby’s attractiveness on a number scale and pressed keys to make the photo stay on the screen longer or disappear faster.

Even though the men and women gave the babies similar attractiveness ratings, the women clicked keys 2.5 times more than men to make photos of babies with disabilities disappear.

“They had this subliminal motivation to get rid of the faces,” said [lead researcher Dr. Igor Elman], who questions whether “we’re designed by nature to invest all the resources into healthy-looking kids.”

Elman questioned whether the finding might challenge the concept of unconditional maternal love.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 6:49 am and is filed under cleft palate, Down syndrome, public attitudes, research news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.