When considering anti-aging procedures, what area should you focus on for the biggest impact? According to a recent study about how we judge age and tiredness in others, the eyes have it.
Researchers equipped a group of male and female young adults with eye-tracking technology and showed them images of faces for five seconds at a time. They were first asked to rate age and then fatigue. The eye-tracking device analyzed where on the face the participants looked and how long the gazes lasted.
When rating both age and fatigue, participants looked at the eye area the longest-an average of 45% of the time. Because this region occupies less than a quarter of the face, the researchers realized it is disproportionately influential to our perception of the characteristics in question.
“Our results raise the possibility that aesthetic surgery to the eye region may be an efficient, effective intervention to enhance an individual’s attractiveness by reducing how old or tired one appears,” said study author Dr. Peter A. D. Rubin, of the University of Tennessee. “Apparently, beauty is not only in the eye of the beholder, but also in the eye of the beholdee.”
