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Chapter 4 - Facial Aging and its Influence on Facial Stereotypes and Trait Judgments

from Part II - Aging and Aging Stereotypes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2023

By
Robert G. Franklin
Edited by
Ursula Hess ,
Reginald B. Adams, Jr.  and
Robert E. Kleck
Ursula Hess
Affiliation:
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Reginald B. Adams, Jr.
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University
Robert E. Kleck
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
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Summary

Facial appearance plays an important role in how we form first impressions of others throughout the lifespan. Many studies have demonstrated that individuals consistently infer personality traits from faces, even when they do not accurately reflect a person’s personality. Only recently has this research been extended into examining older faces and how aging affects these trait impressions. This chapter discusses the impact of aging on judgments of four traits based on first impressions: facial competence, trustworthiness, health, and aggressiveness. Judgments for each of these traits are affected by aging, both by physical changes to facial structure and by stereotypes associated with aging. This chapter also discusses how aging affects the accuracy of first impressions from faces, most notably increasing the accuracy of health judgments but having little effect on the accuracy for other traits.

Keywords

Trait InferencesFace PerceptionAgingTrustworthinessCompetenceAttractivenessBabyfacedness
Type
Chapter
Information
Emotion Communication by the Aging Face and Body
A Multidisciplinary View
 , pp. 85 - 105
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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