AI-faces by Illinois: a database of AI-generated faces depicting children

Chao, Tim Wei-Ting

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129969 Copy

Description

Title

AI-faces by Illinois: a database of AI-generated faces depicting children

Author(s)

Chao, Tim Wei-Ting

Issue Date

2025-07-21

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Rizzo, Michael T

Committee Member(s)

Straka, Brenda C

Department of Study

Psychology

Discipline

Psychology

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• Child Faces
• Face Database
• Artificial Intelligence
• AI
• Stimuli

Abstract

Human faces serve as gateways of impression formation during human interactions and are widely used in psychological research. However, existing databases using real images of children could constrain the types of research questions that can be ethically pursued and potentially raises concerns particularly regarding the use of children’s faces without fully informed consent. The present paper introduces “AI-Faces by Illinois”— a database of 1,152 photorealistic, AI-generated child faces. These images vary systematically by perceived age (3, 6, 10, 15 years), gender (male, female), race/ethnicity (Black, East Asian, Latino/a/e, Middle Eastern/North African, Native American, Pacific Islander, South Asian, White), and emotional expression (10 smiling, 4 angry, 4 sad per group). A norming study provides subjective ratings of each image along key psychological dimensions. Critically, results indicate that faces across race and gender groups were rated as equally real, and many well-documented perceptual biases observed with real faces—such as the Own-Race Bias—also generalize to AI-generated faces. These validation data highlight methodological advantages of using AI-generated child faces in developmental psychology research.

Graduation Semester

2025-08

Type of Resource

Thesis

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129969

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2025 Tim (Wei-Ting) Chao

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