Faster and more accurate identification of male faces in female care home residents

Abstract

We investigated whether healthy older adults who live in female-dominated old age care homes can identify the gender of male and female faces of people from different ethnicities in the same way as young adults. We hypothesized that this mainly female environment would lead by exposure to a female-gender bias. A sample of 40 participants aged 20-30 and 70-80 years identified the sex-of-face of 120 images of young and old adults, male and female faces, black and white faces, presented in a randomized sequence in a self-paced computer task. The young group was significantly more accurate and faster than the older group in sex-of-face identification. Men’s faces were identified as male faster than female faces as female by both young and old adults. Men’s faces were also more accurately identified by younger adults, but in care home residents, this was only the case for faces of young white and older black men. Faces of white older women were identified more accurately than those of black older women by the care home residents, especially in the women-only sample when men were excluded from statistical analysis. Because the known masculinity bias in women prevailed beyond the menopause, it is discussed whether rather than fertility hormones, women’s testosterone would be a likely candidate explaining the male advantage in sex-of-face identification throughout the life-span.