ERIC Number: EJ990308
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Nov
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0165-0254
EISSN: N/A
So You Think You Look Young? Matching Older Adults' Subjective Ages with Age Estimations Provided by Younger, Middle-Aged, and Older Adults
Kotter-Gruhn, Dana; Hess, Thomas M.
International Journal of Behavioral Development, v36 n6 p468-475 Nov 2012
Perceived age plays an important role in the context of age identity and social interactions. To examine how accurate individuals are in estimating how old they look and how old others are, younger, middle-aged, and older adults rated photographs of older target persons (for whom we had information about objective and subjective age) in terms of age and other characteristics. Whereas the older targets had quite accurate perceptions of how old they look, the raters' age estimations for those targets were rather inaccurate. Older raters and those with frequent contact with older adults provided the most accurate age estimations. Targets that were rated more favorably with respect to attractiveness or fitness were perceived as younger than those with negative ratings. (Contains 1 table, 2 figures, and 1 note.)
Descriptors: Interpersonal Communication, Older Adults, Adults, Age, Stereotypes, Photography, Visual Aids, Perception, Cues, Scores, Correlation, Regression (Statistics)
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A