How Much Older Do You Get When a Wrinkle Appears on Your Face? Modifying Age Estimates by Number of Wrinkles

Abstract

The present study investigated the influence of wrinkles on facial age judgments. In Experiment 1, preadolescents, young adults, and middle-aged adults made categorical age judgments for male and female faces. The qualitative (type of wrinkle) and quantitative (density of wrinkles and depth of furrows) contributions of wrinkles were analyzed. Results indicated that the greater the number of wrinkles and the depth of furrows, the older a face was rated. The roles of the gender of the face and the age of the participants were discussed. In Experiment 2, participants performed relative age judgments by comparing pairs of faces. Results revealed that the number of wrinkles had more influence on the perceived facial age than the type of wrinkle. A MDS analysis showed the main dimensions on which participants based their judgments, namely, the number of wrinkles and the depth of furrows. We conclude that the quantitative component is more likely to increase perceived facial age. Nevertheless, other variables, such as the gender of the face and the age of the participants, also seem to be involved in the age estimation process.

Age Estimation from Faces and Voices: A Review

“…However this influence has a different weight in male and female faces. Aznar-Casanova, Torro-Alves, & Fukusima (2010) reported that wrinkles make male faces older than female faces. Moreover, female faces keep longer babyish features (Enlow, Pfister, Richardson, & Kuroda, 1982).…”

Will Wrinkle Estimate the Face Age?

“…Consequently, facial wrinkles have unique characteristics depending upon the frequency of movements and the effect of gravity. Many argue that facial wrinkles are highly correlated with age [23], [26]. Therefore, in this work, we explore the uniqueness of wrinkle characteristics by localizing and presenting it in a meaningful way for age estimation.…”

“…Due to these reasons, research into age estimation by using local features has gained increasing attention. AznarCasanova et al [23] investigated the influence of wrinkles on facial age judgements. Their experiments were based on the types of wrinkles and quantitative contribution of wrinkles.…”

The Use of programming languages and computer software in psychological science

“…However, given their versatility and precision in controlling stimuli characteristics and experimental procedures, they have become useful tools in the study of basic psychological processes, allowing to investigate, for example, emotional perception (Alves, Aznar-Casanova, & Fukusima, 2009), detection of spatial frequency (Santos, Andrade, & Fernández-Calvo, 2013), spatial navigation in virtual environments (Aznar-Casanova, Alves, & da Silva, 2012) and age perception (AznarCasanova, Torro- Alves, & Fukusima, 2010). C++ can be used to control important aspects of stimuli presentation, such as: (a) millisecond precision timing (i.e.…”