Are first impressions of children's faces functional?

Despite warnings not to "judge a book by its cover", people form facial impressions and these impressions have social consequences for adults and children. Understanding impressions of children's faces is especially important because these impressions have consequences during a crucial developmental period. Here, I demonstrate that impressions of children's faces are not arbitrary, but likely stem from functional mechanisms. I show impressions of children's faces are evaluated along two dimensions (niceness/shyness) which reflect adults' nurturing stance towards children, rather than the threat-focused adult-face dimensions (Chapter 2). Furthermore, I find modest accuracy for adults' and children's niceness, but not shyness, impressions.