Flickr, Tanel TeemuskOur ability to judge the trustworthiness of faces diminishes with age, as does activity in the brain region associated with “gut feeling” decisions about the appearance of others, which could explain why older people are more vulnerable to face-to-face financial scams, according to a study out this week (December 3) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), up to 80 percent of scam victims are over the age of 65. To find out why, psychologist Shelley Taylor at the University of California, Los Angeles, showed photos of faces pre-rated for trustworthiness to a group of 119 older people (ages 55-84) and 34 young people (ages 20-42).
Both groups perceived faces pre-rated as “trustworthy” or “neutral” as equally trustworthy, but the older group considered “untrustworthy” faces significantly more trustworthy than the young group did. The older people missed facial cues—such as a direct gaze or a smile that turns fully upwards—that were easily distinguished by younger folk.
Then the researchers asked 44 volunteers to rate faces for trustworthiness as they underwent functional magnetic brain imaging (fMRI). ...
