Aspects of Facial Contrast Decrease with Age and Are Cues for Age Perception

Age is a primary social dimension. We behave differently toward people as a function of how old we perceive them to be. Age perception relies on cues that are correlated with age, such as wrinkles. Here we report that aspects of facial contrast–the contrast between facial features and the surrounding skin–decreased with age in a large sample of adult Caucasian females. These same aspects of facial contrast were also significantly correlated with the perceived age of the faces. Individual faces were perceived as younger when these aspects of facial contrast were artificially increased, but older when these aspects of facial contrast were artificially decreased. These findings show that facial contrast plays a role in age perception, and that faces with greater facial contrast look younger. Because facial contrast is increased by typical cosmetics use, we infer that cosmetics function in part by making the face appear younger

Sclera Color Changes with Age and is a Cue for Perceiving Age, Health, and Beauty

Redness or yellowness of the sclera (the light part of the eye) are known signs of illness, as is looking older than one’s actual age. Here we report that the color of the sclera is related to age in a large sample of adult Caucasian females. Specifically, older faces have sclera that are more dark, red, and yellow than younger faces. A subset of these faces were manipulated to increase or decrease the darkness, redness, or yellowness of the sclera. Faces with decreased sclera darkness, redness, or yellowness were perceived to be younger than faces with increased sclera darkness, redness, or yellowness. Further, these manipulations also caused the faces to be perceived as more or less healthy, and more or less attractive. These findings show that sclera coloration is a cue for the perception of age, health, and attractiveness that is rooted in the physical changes that occur with age. [From the publisher

Contrast manipulated versions of a face.

<p>The left image shows a face with facial contrast increased and the right image shows the same face with facial contrast decreased.</p

Results of forced-choice contrast manipulation experiment.

<p>The percentage of trials for which the high contrast face was judged younger is shown in the dark bars and the percentage of trials for which the low contrast face was judged younger is shown in the light bars. Results are shown for three age classes.</p

Labelling of facial regions.

<p>The dashed lines demonstrate how the features and surrounding skin were defined.</p

The relationship between age and luminance (L*) or color (a*, b*) contrast.

1<p> <i>Absolute value.</i></p

The relationship between perceived age and luminance (L*) or color (a*, b*) contrast.

1<p> <i>Absolute value.</i></p

Figure 2. Decrease in contrast with age.

<p>L* contrast of the eyebrows (left) and a* contrast of the mouth (right) as a function of age of the face. Each point represents a particular face.</p

Facial Contrast is a Cue for Perceiving Health from the Face

How healthy someone appears has important social consequences. Yet the visual cues that determine perceived health remain poorly understood. Here we report evidence that facial contrast—the luminance and color contrast between internal facial features and the surrounding skin—is a cue for the perception of health from the face. Facial contrast was measured from a large sample of Caucasian female faces, and was found to predict ratings of perceived health. Most aspects of facial contrast were positively related to perceived health, meaning that faces with higher facial contrast appeared healthier. In 2 subsequent experiments, we manipulated facial contrast and found that participants perceived faces with increased facial contrast as appearing healthier than faces with decreased facial contrast. These results support the idea that facial contrast is a cue for perceived health. This finding adds to the growing knowledge about perceived health from the face, and helps to ground our understanding of perceived health in terms of lower-level perceptual features such as contrast. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved