Friend or Foe? Age Moderates Time-Course Specific Responsiveness to Trustworthiness Cues

Abstract

This study provided initial evidence that the age-related positivity effect in affective processing extends to subtle emotional cues, generally interpreted as being reflective of socially relevant personality traits. Implications for aging theories of motivated cognition and developmental changes in reliance on superficial affective cues are discussed.

Age-related similarities and differences in first impressions of trustworthiness

“…This lack of an interaction is consistent with the trust decay model in which a dual process ensures that the most reliable information takes precedence (see Chang et al, 2010). Because of reduced cognitive capacity for decision-making with age (see Peters et al, 2011), these dual processes were not expected to merge for older adults, and no interaction between facial appearance and thirdparty reputational information was expected.…”

“…Although an age-related decrease in attention to superficial facial cues to trustworthiness has been documented (Castle et al, 2012), other research has found no age difference in ratings of trustworthiness in computer-generated faces (Petrican et al, 2012). However, it was also shown that older (but not younger) adults were more likely to follow the eye gaze of trustworthy-than untrustworthy-looking faces (Petrican et al, 2012).…”

“…However, it was also shown that older (but not younger) adults were more likely to follow the eye gaze of trustworthy-than untrustworthy-looking faces (Petrican et al, 2012). This suggests that there might be an age-related increase in attention to superficial facial indicators of trustworthiness.…”

“…This may be because information from faces is processed more automatically and quickly than third party reputational information. Older age is associated with reductions in deliberative processing, including greater difficulty inhibiting irrelevant information (Peters, Dieckmann, & Weller, 2011). It is therefore important to test whether there might be increased reliance with age on less informative, and more automatically processed facial indicators of trustworthiness.…”

Not afraid to trust you: Trustworthiness moderates gaze cueing but not in highly anxious participants

“…It should be noted, that this was not the first study examining a potential influence of trustworthiness on gaze cueing, however these studies yielded inconsistent results. Although some studies -implicitly (Bayliss & Tipper, 2006) or explicitly (King et al, 2011) investigating the effects of trustworthiness on gaze cueingcould not find any moderating effect, other studies found effects of trustworthiness (e.g., Petrican et al, 2013) at least in specific populations. Particular strengths of our study might account for the different results compared to King et al (2011) and Bayliss and Tipper (2006).…”