School of Psychology, College of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2012 Mar;67(2):178-83. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbr087. Epub 2011 Aug 1.
Research indicates that the most commonly held belief about deception is that people avert their gaze when lying. The present study assessed adult age-related differences in both the association between averted gaze and judgments of deception and the strength of the "deceiver stereotype."
In Study 1, younger and older adult participants were required to decide if individuals displaying direct gaze or differing degrees of gaze aversion were lying or telling the truth. In Study 2, a group of younger and older adults were explicitly asked about their beliefs concerning how different behaviors related to deception.
Findings revealed that, compared with younger participants, when asked to decide whether individuals were lying, older adults were less likely to associate direct gaze with honesty and averted gaze with deception. This effect was not due to age-related differences in the strength of the deceiver stereotype, as when explicitly asked, both younger and older participants associated averted gaze with lying.
These findings provide further evidence of age-related differences in the ability to extract socially relevant information from the eye region, which might relate to changes in visual scanning of facial features with age.
研究表明，人们普遍认为说谎者会回避目光。本研究评估了成人在回避目光与欺骗判断之间的关联以及“欺骗者刻板印象”的强度方面的年龄相关差异。
在研究 1 中，要求年轻和年长的成年参与者判断直接注视或不同程度的目光回避的个体是否在说谎或说实话。在研究 2 中，一组年轻和年长的成年人被明确询问他们对不同行为与欺骗之间关系的看法。
研究结果表明，与年轻参与者相比，当被要求判断个体是否在说谎时，年长的参与者不太可能将直接注视与诚实联系起来，将回避目光与欺骗联系起来。这种效应不是由于与年龄相关的欺骗者刻板印象的强度差异造成的，因为当被明确询问时，年轻和年长的参与者都将回避目光与说谎联系起来。
这些发现进一步证明了从眼部区域提取社会相关信息的能力与年龄相关的差异，这可能与年龄增长时对面部特征的视觉扫描变化有关。
