A new study is revealing that wrinkles
aren't the only cue the human eye looks for... A new study is revealing
that wrinkles aren't the only cue the human eye looks for to evaluate
age. Facial skin color distribution, or tone, can add 10-12 years to a
woman's perceived age.
The study, published in the latest
issue of the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, used
three-dimensional imaging and morphing software to remove wrinkles and
furrows from pictures of women, leaving skin tone as the only variable.
Researchers were then able to determine exactly what impact facial skin
tone has on how young, healthy and attractive people perceive the women
to be. Faces with more even skin tone were judged to be younger.
"Until now, behavioral scientists have
mostly ignored the overall homogeneity and color saturation of a
person's skin," says lead researcher Dr. Karl Grammer. "This study
points out that wrinkles aren't the only visual cue to a woman's age.
"Skin tone and luminosity may be a
major signal to suitors of a woman's attractiveness, as well as of her
assumed age," said Grammer, who is founder and scientific director of
the Ludwig-Boltzmann-Institute for Urban Ethology at the University of
Vienna, Austria.
The researchers took digital
photographs of 169 Caucasian women between the ages of 10 and 70. Then
they used specialized morphing software to "drape" each subject's facial
skin over a standardized model, in effect, taking 169 different skin
tones and applying them to a common canvas.
