How Long and How We Judge Age: A Cross-Racial and Cross-Gender Eye-Tracking Investigation

This study investigates how different facial regions, particularly the midface, influence rapid age estimation across diverse ethnicities and genders using eye-tracking technology. The authors aimed to understand decision times and gaze patterns when participants evaluated digitally generated facial images of varying ages, revealing that the midface is crucial for age perception and that middle-aged faces require more detailed processing. The findings highlight the importance of focusing on the midface in aesthetic interventions for middle-aged individuals to align with natural age perception mechanisms.