Psychology Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, 8410501, Israel.
The Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 5B7, Canada.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2018 Apr;25(2):612-616. doi: 10.3758/s13423-017-1306-8.
It is a common belief that smiling makes people appear younger. Empirical findings, however, suggest that smiling faces are actually perceived as older than neutral faces. Here we show that these two apparently contradictory phenomena can co-exist in the same person. In the first experiment, participants were first asked to estimate the ages of a series of smiling or neutral faces. After that, they were asked to estimate the average age of the set of neutral and smiling faces they had just evaluated. Finally, they were asked what effect smiling has on one's perceived age. In the experimental session, smiling faces were perceived as older than neutral faces. Nevertheless, after the experiment, consistent with their retrospective evaluations, participants recalled smiling faces as being younger than the neutral faces. Experiment 2 replicated and extended these results to a set of emotional expressions that also included surprised faces. Smiling faces were again perceived as older than neutral faces, which were in turn perceived as older than surprised faces. Again, retrospective evaluations were consistent with the belief that smiling makes people look younger. The findings show that this belief, well-rooted in popular media, is a complete misconception.
人们普遍认为微笑会让人看起来更年轻。然而，实证研究表明，微笑的面孔实际上被认为比中性面孔更显老。在这里，我们展示了这两种看似矛盾的现象可以同时存在于同一个人身上。在第一个实验中，参与者首先被要求估计一系列微笑或中性面孔的年龄。之后，他们被要求估计他们刚刚评估的中性和微笑面孔的平均年龄。最后，他们被问到微笑对一个人的感知年龄有什么影响。在实验过程中，微笑的面孔被认为比中性面孔更显老。然而，实验结束后，与他们的回溯评估一致，参与者回忆起微笑的面孔比中性面孔更年轻。实验 2 复制并扩展了这些结果，涉及到一组也包括惊讶面孔的情绪表达。微笑的面孔再次被认为比中性面孔更显老，而中性面孔又被认为比惊讶面孔更显老。同样，回溯评估与微笑使人看起来更年轻的信念是一致的。研究结果表明，这种在大众媒体中根深蒂固的信念是一个完全的误解。
