Work

No Evidence that People Born to Older Parents Show Weaker Preferences for Younger Adult Faces

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Purpose People can judge others’ ages from face images somewhat accurately and tend to rateyounger adults’ faces as more attractive than older adults’ faces. However, individual diff erences inthe strength of this preference for younger adult faces have also been reported, whereby peopleborn to older parents (i.e., people whose parents were older when the participant was born) showedweaker preferences for younger adult faces. However, work showing this pattern of results used facestimuli in which cues of age were experimentally manipulated using computer-graphics methods andmany researchers have recently raised concerns about how well fi ndings obtained using such stimuligeneralise to ratings of natural (i.e., unmanipulated) face images. Methods In light of the above, we tested whether people born to older parents showed weakerpreferences for younger faces when rating the attractiveness of natural (i.e., unmanipulated) faceimages. Results Although our analyses demonstrated that participants generally showed strong preferencesfor younger adult faces, the strength of these preferences was not signifi cantly correlated withparental age at birth. Conclusions Thus, our results do not support the proposal that parental age at birth infl uencespreferences for facial cues of age.

Source: Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology

DOI: 10.1007/s40750-025-00263-8

Authors: Jingheng Li, Pengting Lee, Yasaman Rafiee, Benedict C. Jones, Victor K. M. Shiramizu

Institution: University of Strathclyde

Language: English

Topic: Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,190

Funder: Economic and Social Research Council