Age differences in facial first impressions of traits associated with trustworthiness

Abstract

Older adults are more susceptible to becoming fraud victims due to increased generalised trust in others for assistance, leading to deception. Age differences in first impressions of unfamiliar faces on traits associated with trustworthiness was explored in this study. Investigating the various interpretations of trustworthiness across age has not been previously led. Using a data-driven approach, the key traits interpreted from trustworthiness were used in a trait rating task. Older adults provided higher ratings and showed an own-age bias for the traits trustworthy, honest, reliable, and loyal compared to younger adults, but not for the trait considerate. Mean trait ratings from younger adults did not differ across face age however, older faces were perceived as more reliable over younger faces across both age groups. Strong positive correlations were found across all traits. These were consistent with the single dimension found through a principal component analysis, which revealed that across all traits, trustworthiness was the most appropriate label to represent the dimension. Both age groups associated the same faces when rating the traits across both face age categories. The highest and lowest rated face averages were constructed, showing that the highest old and young averages were female and smiling across all traits. These findings highlight some age differences in facial first impressions of trustworthiness as well as the efficacy of the original trustworthiness dimension, based on social evaluations found from previous research.