"You're only as old as you feel": Self-perceptions of age, fears of aging, and life satisfaction from adolescence to old age.

We examined differences in subjective age identification from adolescence to old age and the relation between subjective age and fears about one's own aging and life satisfaction. Using a questionnaire format, 188 men and women from 14 to 83 years of age made judgments about how old they felt, looked, acted, and desired to be. Respondents also answered questions about their personal fears of aging and present life satisfaction. Results revealed that individuals in their teens held older subjective age identities, whereas during the early adult years, individuals maintained same age identities. Across the middle and later adult years, individuals reported younger age identities, and women experienced younger age identities than men across these adults years. Results also revealed that discrepancies between subjective and actual age were associated with personal fears of aging and life satisfaction, especially in younger men and women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impressions of people created by age-related qualities of their gaits.

Drawing on the ecological theory of social perception, we investigated the impact of age-related gait qualities on trait impressions. In Study 1, Ss observed 5- to 70-year-old walkers depicted in point–light displays, and rated the walkers' traits, gaits, and ages. Younger walkers were perceived as more powerful and happier than older walkers. A composite of youthful gait qualities predicted trait impressions regardless of the walkers' masculine gait qualities, sex, and perceived age. In Study 2, Ss observed young adult walkers depicted in point–light displays and rated their traits, gaits, and ages. Consistent with the effects of real age found in Study 1, young adults with youthful gaits were perceived as more powerful and happier than peers with older gaits, irrespective of their masculine gait qualities, sex, and perceived age. Study 3 replicated Study 2 using displays showing walkers' full bodies and faces. A youthful gait predicted trait impressions even when Ss could discern the walkers' age and sex. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impressions of babyfaced individuals across the life span.

Four questions were addressed concerning perceptions of babyfaced individuals from infancy to older adulthood: (1) Do perceivers make reliable babyface judgments at each age; (2) does a babyface have the same effects on trait impressions at each age; (3) are the effects of a babyface independent of the effects of attractiveness; and (4) what facial maturity features are associated with babyface ratings, and do these features predict trait impressions? Ratings of portrait photographs revealed that perceivers reliably detect variations in babyfaceness across the life span. Facial measurements revealed that large eyes, a round face, thin eyebrows, and a small nose bridge characterized a babyface. Trait impressions showed a babyface overgeneralization effect at each age: Babyfaced individuals were perceived to have more childlike traits than their maturefaced peers, and this effect was independent of attractiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

They don't all look alike: Individual impressions of other racial groups.

Reliability, content, and homogeneity of own- and other-race impressions were assessed: US White, US Black, and Korean students rated faces of White, Black, or Korean men. High intraracial reliabilities revealed that people of one race showed equally high agreement regarding the traits of own- and other-race faces. Racially universal appearance stereotypes (the attractiveness halo effect and the babyface overgeneralization effect) contributed substantially to interracial agreement, which was only marginally lower than intraracial agreement. Moreover, similar attention to variations in appearance yielded similar degrees of own- and other-race trait differentiation. When own- and other-race differences in the differentiation of faces on babyfaceness were statistically controlled, differences in trait differentiation were eliminated. Despite the individual impressions of other-race faces, certain racial stereotypes persisted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)