Gender differences in attentional orienting to infant gaze: Evidence from a modified central cueing paradigm.

Attentional orienting in response to infants' gaze is crucial for effective caregiving and interaction with infants, yet it has often been overlooked in previous studies. Using a modified central cueing paradigm, this study measured gaze-cueing effect (GCE) in response to infant versus adult faces (N = 115). Results showed that male participants exhibited a negligible GCE to infant faces, significantly smaller than their response to adult faces. In contrast, female participants exhibited significant GCEs to both infant and adult faces. This gender difference disappeared when the infant faces were partially scrambled to obscure facial features, leaving only the eyes visible. These findings highlight distinct processing of infant gaze between males and females, providing new evidence of gender differences in the processing of infant-related stimuli.