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Facial aesthetic unit separation plays role in perceived facial aging

In a comparison of photographs, researchers determined facial aesthetic unit separation influenced the perceived youthfulness of women, even among naïve observers.

Professional photographs were taken of nine adult female volunteers between the ages of 28 and 57. More youthful faces with less facial aesthetic unit separation were digitally aged with the addition of lines and contours. Aged faces were digitally enhanced to look younger by blending aesthetic units. The process created two sets of photographs for each face: the original and the digitally manipulated photograph.

The judging observers consisted of 24 naïve, individuals between the ages of 20 and 29, including 16 women and eight men. The observers provided ratings in a single session lasting around 45 minutes.

The research generated 4,032 responses (168 photograph pairs by 24 raters) for inclusion in the analysis.

Observers judged the photographs without aesthetic unit separation to be more youthful in appearance than their aged original or modified counterpart photographs, with mean preference scores of 0.66 and 0.33, respectively, according to the researchers.

In 2,015 cases where photographs of aesthetic unit separation were paired with photographs that included a blended aesthetic unit, the blended aesthetic unit photographs were indicated as the younger-appearing photograph 95% of the time.

The researchers found inter-rater reliability was good, with a score of 0.88. – by Abigail Sutton

Disclosures: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.