Conceptual development and change precede adults’ judgments about powerful appearance

Objective: Adults’ mental representations of the physical appearance of people that are “strong” and people that are “in charge” are remarkably similar. Some have explained this feature of adults’ thinking by positing innate mental representations. However, specific details about the nature and structure of these representations and an appropriate empirical foundation for these claims has been lacking. In this review, my objective is to provide a high-level summary of recent research exploring infants’ and young children’s intuitions about the physical manifestations of power. I argue that the social responses and judgments of young participants are more informative about the existence and nature of putatively innate mental content. Methods: Narrative review of developmental studies. Results: Preverbal infants exhibit a remarkably early sensitivity to the relative power of two agents. By the time that people enter childhood, they exhibit increasingly adult-like intuitions about powerful appearance. Additionally, there are significant revisions in the appearance-to-power correspondences that people detect between childhood and adulthood. Conclusions: These complex developmental patterns are inconsistent with the idea that adults’ intuitions about the physical manifestations of power are straightforward outputs of an innate psychology. Rather, despite an early-emerging sensitivity to appearance-based cues to power, significant conceptual development and change precede adults’ judgments about powerful appearance.