Emotional expressions reduce the own-age bias.

Abstract

We are better at recognising faces of our own age group compared to faces of other age groups. It has been suggested that this own-age bias (OAB) might occur because of perceptual-expertise and/or social-cognitive mechanisms. While there is evidence to suggest effects of perceptual-expertise, little research has explored the role of social-cognitive factors. To do so, we looked at how the presence of an emotional expression on the face changes the magnitude of the OAB. Across three experiments young adult participants were presented with young and older adult faces to remember. Neutral faces were first presented alone (Experiment 1) to validate the proposed paradigm, and then presented along with angry (Experiment 2), and sad or happy faces (Experiment 3). The presence of an emotional expression improved the recognition of older adult faces, reducing the OAB which was evident for neutral faces. These results support the involvement of social-cognitive factors in the OAB, suggesting that a perceptual-expertise account cannot fully explain this face recognition bias.

Social categorization and individuation in the own‐age bias

“…It is, however, worth considering the implications of using the same image at learning and test for the interpretation of results. Prior research has demonstrated that the OAB is also observed when different images of the same individual are presented in the learning and test phases (Anastasi & Rhodes, ; Cronin, Craig, & Lipp, ; Harrison & Hole, ) so the presence of an OAB in the current study is unlikely to be affected by this methodological decision. The effectiveness of individuation instructions has, so far, only been demonstrated when using the same image at learning and test (Hugenberg et al ., ; Rhodes et al ., ; Young & Hugenberg, ; Young et al ., ).…”

An own‐age bias in mixed‐ and pure‐list presentations: No evidence for the social‐cognitive account

“…A previously used intentional learning old/new recognition paradigm was employed (Cronin et al, 2019). Participants were randomly assigned to one of three stimulus list types: mixed, pure-young, or pure-old.…”

“…Those in the pureyoung condition saw 24 young faces, and those in the pure-old condition saw 24 older adult faces. In line with previous experiments investigating the OAB with online participants (Cronin et al, 2019), a secondary response time (RT) task was included to ensure participants were paying attention to the faces. To facilitate this, half of the faces were presented for 1,000 ms and half for 1,500 ms, with an inter-stimulus interval of 1,500 ms.…”

“…Given the modified ANOVA (see Data Analysis below) used in the Bryce and Dodson (, Exp 2) study, a power analysis using G*Power (Faul, Erdfelder, Lang, & Buchner, ) was conducted using an effect size estimate from a previous study investigating the OAB (paired‐samples t ‐test: d av = 0.64, Cronin et al , ). This suggested that 32 participants would be required to have an 80% chance of finding the OAB in a mixed‐list design.…”

“…This in turn increases motivation to remember the face and prompts processing of the face at the individual level. One study examining the effect of emotional expressions on the OAB presented participants with faces posing neutral and emotional expressions (angry, sad, or happy; Cronin, Craig, & Lipp, 2019). Emotional expressions reduced the OAB seen for faces with neutral expressions by improving the recognition of other-age faces.…”