What can face preference in newborns tell us about their face representation? Contrasting learned familiarity with inherent bias accounts.

Possible mechanisms behind newborn face preferences are debated, including innate templates, top-heavy bias, focus on eyes, and rapid learning explanations. This study examined whether White 2- to 5-day-olds (recruited in France between 2012 and 2015) prefer adult over neonate faces with same-race (White) and other-race (Chinese) faces. Newborns viewed adult and neonate faces of the same race (n = 21, 5 females) and other race (n = 22, 10 females). To assess the role of image features, same-race faces were presented upside down (n = 23, 10 females). Newborns preferred adult faces with upright same-race faces (Cohen's d = 0.95), but not with other-race or inverted faces, supporting an account based on familiarity rather than structural bias or feature-based attention.