The Effect of Aging on Facial Attractiveness: An Empirical and Computational Investigation

How does aging affect facial attractiveness? This study aims to examine age and sex differences in aesthetic assessments of older faces and explore whether this effect varies depending on how attractiveness is queried. We tested the hypothesis that people find older faces less attractive than younger faces, and furthermore, that these aging effects are modulated by the age and sex of the perceiver and by the specific kind of attractiveness judgment being made. Using empirical and computational network science methods, we confirmed that with increasing age, faces are perceived as less attractive. This effect was less pronounced in judgments made by older than younger and middle-aged perceivers, and more pronounced by men (especially for female faces) than women. Young people and men are more critical judges than older people. Elegance as a descriptor for attractiveness is more resistant to effects of aging than beauty or gorgeousness. Furthermore, network analyses revealed that older faces were more similar in attractiveness and were segregated from younger faces. Young people are relatively insensitive when discriminating levels of attractiveness among older people. These results indicate that perceivers tend to process older faces categorically when making attractiveness judgments. Attractiveness is not a monolithic construct. It varies by age, sex, and the words used to describe attractiveness.