Do People Appear Younger When Surrounded by Younger Individuals?

Abstract

Research has found a stranger's perceived age changes when they appear in a group. Typically, results indicate that a face appears younger when surrounded by younger faces. The mechanisms behind these findings are unknown, though, ensemble coding theory is a proposed explanation. Ensemble coding is an adaptive mechanism where an average across a group of stimuli is taken, allowing larger amounts of information to be processed. If ensemble coding does explain past findings of age estimation is groups, it is expected that a stranger will appear younger when flanked by a larger number of faces and a weaker effect will occur when faces are viewed for a longer period. To examine this, we presented 237 participants with a series of 30 target faces, 10 presented alone, 10 presented alongside 2 younger flanker faces and 10 presented alongside 4 younger flanker faces. Half of the participants viewed each face for 2 seconds and half viewed each face for 4 seconds. Results replicated previous findings. We found that target faces appeared younger when presented alongside younger flanker faces, and the effect increases as the number of flankers increased. The time faces were presented had no impact. Thus, it is suggested that individuals do appear younger when surrounded by younger faces and as the number of faces increases, the younger they appear. It is further suggested that ensemble coding may not explain the influence of time on age estimation, as target faces continued to appear younger when seen for four seconds.