Why Do We Look Younger or Older than We Are: the Search for Psychological Determinants
The paper presents the results of the first stage of the study devoted to the analysis of perceived age psychological determinants. The purpose of the article was to study gender-age, socio-demographic and psychological factors of a person’s perceived age assessing based on his or her appearance perception. “Perceived age” is defined by the authors as the age attributed to a person (object of perception) by another person (subject of perception, appraiser) as a result of perception of his or her physical appearance. As a psychological factor of a person’s age perception the article considers person’s own attitude to his or her appearance. The study systematizes the factors that affect / do not affect the assessment of another person’s perceived age: 1) the assessment of the perceived age is influenced by the age of the object and the subject of perception, as well as the attitude of the object of perception to his or her own appearance (parameter «aesthetic assessment of his or her own appearance»); 2) the assessment of the perceived age of a person is not affected by the type of photo visualization of the object of perception (in full growth or portrait photo), the sex of the object and the subject of perception, family status and the level of material welfare of the subject of perception. Also a trend was found that does not depend on gender and age of the subject and the object of perception: the tendency “to age” the perceived other (to attribute to a person more years than his or her real chronological age).
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