"A wrinkle in time: The perception of expressions in the elderly"

We propose to study (a) the stereotypes that young adults hold regarding the emotional lives of the elderly, (b) the perception of facial expressions shown by the elderly and (c) reactions to these expressions in terms of facial mimicry by the perceiver. Available evidence suggests that young adults do not accurately process the emotional expressions of the elderly. We argue that stereotypes and perceptual biases due to age related appearance changes in the aging face interact to degrade the signal clarity of expressions shown by the elderly and combine to hinder mimicry of their expressions. The proposed research will be the first to clarify our understanding of these processes