Age and beauty are in the eye of the beholder

How “old” and “attractive” an individual appears has increasingly become an individual concern leading to the utilisation of various cosmetic surgical procedures aimed at enhancing appearance. Using eyetracking, in the present study we aimed to investigate how individuals perceive age and attractiveness of younger and older faces and what “bottom-up” facial cues are used in this process. One hundred and twenty eight digital images of neutral faces of ages ranging from 20 to 89 years were paired and presented to subjects who judged age and attractiveness levels while having their eye movements recorded. There was an effect of face attractiveness on age-rating accuracy, with attractive faces being rated younger than their true age. Similarly, stimulus age affected attractiveness ratings, with younger faces being perceived as more attractive. Judgments of age and attractiveness were tightly linked to fixations on the eye region, along with the nose and mouth. It is thus likely that cosmetic surgical procedures targeted at the eyes, nose, and mouth may be most efficacious at enhancing one's physical appearance.