Trait impressions from faces demonstrate preserved social intelligence in older adulthood

Abstract

The social intelligence manifested in first impressions from faces is generally preserved in normal aging. Older adults’ impressions of the competence, health, hostility, and trustworthiness of both older and younger faces agree with those of younger adults. This is consistent with a shared tendency to overgeneralize adaptive impressions of categories of people (unfit people, babies, emotional people) to faces that merely resemble those categories. Older and younger adults also show similar accuracy in impressions. These age similarities persist despite older adults’ more positive impressions of faces overall and their less differentiated ratings of faces on impression scales. Possible mechanisms for these age differences are discussed.