Influence of the Stable Component of the External Appearance on the Perceived Age of a Person

Abstract

The “perceived age” of a person is the age attributed to him by another person in the process of perceiving his appearance. The research is devoted to the study of the influence of a stable component of a person’s appearance (the main body characteristics — height, weight and body mass index) on the perceived age of a person. The study involved 94 people: 30 women (18—49 years old) who attend weight loss courses; 24 women and 12 men (20—51 years old) who do not attend special weight loss courses; 28 evaluators (ordinary people from 22 to 45 years old) who evaluate the age of the study participants based on photos. The obtained data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney u-test, Wilcoxon T-test, and Spearman correlation analysis. Conclusions: 1) women who have taken weight loss courses look younger than they did before losing weight; 2) men and women who do not attend weight loss courses look younger or older than their years depending on their weight and body mass index (those who look younger have a lower weight and index); 3) the results of weight loss in women differ depending on their attitude to their appearance, social needs, and parameters of psychological well-being. The conducted research proves the influence of the parameters of a person’s physique on his perceived age, confirms the determinative role of self-assessment of appearance in the implementation of various practices for the transformation of ones appearance.