Abstract: Baby schema (or Kindchenschema), referring to a kind of people’s mental representation about a set of infant-like physical features, such as large head, big eyes and round face, can induce a positive emotion and care-giving behaviors towards the infant. Such a function plays an important role in improving the survival of individuals and satisfying the need to reproduce. There exist sex differences in people’s reaction to infant faces, of which females are more sensitive to baby schema than males. The reasons may be attributed to their different brain structures, female-specific emotive responses, female reproductive hormones, and the early environment. Future studies should go further in disclosing the special neural mechanisms of baby schema, and explore the relationship between maternal love and baby schema on the basis of the sex differences.

Key words: baby schema, infant face, sex differences, positive emotion, caring behavior