Asymmetric contextual effects in age perception dataset

Perception is context dependent. For example, the perceived orientation of
a bar changes depending on the presence of oriented bars around it.
Contextual effects have also been demonstrated for more complex
judgements, such as facial attractiveness or expression, although it
remains unclear how these contextual facial effects depend on the types of
faces surrounding the target face.To examine this, we measured the
perceived age (a quantifiable measure) of a target face in the presence of
differently aged faces in the surround. Using a unique database
of standardized passport photos, participants were asked to estimate the
age of a target face which was viewed either on its own or
surrounded by two different identity flanker faces. The flanker
faces were either both younger or both older than the target face, with
different age offsets between flankers and targets of ±5, ±10, ±15, ±20
years. We find that when a target face is surrounded by younger faces, it
systematically appears younger than when viewed on its own, and
when it is surrounded by older faces, it systematically appears
older than when viewed on its own. Surprisingly, we find that the
magnitude of the flanker effects on perceived age of the target
is asymmetric with younger flankers having a greater
influence than older flankers, a result that may reflect the
participants’ own-age bias, since all participants were young.
This result holds irrespective of gender or race of the faces and is
consistent with averaging.