New Study Reveals That Facial Contrast Can Make You Look Younger

When looking at someone, many compare the amount of wrinkles one has to how old they are. The more wrinkles you have, the older you appear to be, right? Well, a new study shows that those pesky fine lines aren’t the only things that correlate with age. Facial contrasts, aka “the contrast between facial features and the surrounding skin,” also play a huge role in age perception.

Scientists at Gettysburg College studied Caucasian females and noticed that faces with a larger facial contrast appear younger. To get the results, they had to artificially alter the participants’ facial contrast. The first study tested facial luminance and color contrast, while the second study tested whether facial contrast played a role in age perception.

“Individual faces were perceived as younger when these aspects of facial contrast were artificially increased, but older when these aspects of facial contrast were artificially decreased. These findings show that facial contrast plays a role in age perception, and that faces with greater facial contrast look younger.”

The study also stated that “facial contrast is increased by typical cosmetics use, we infer that cosmetics function in part by making the face appear younger.” It just goes to show you how much of a difference beauty products make in our every day lives. 

For more information about the study, read the article here.