“In spite of the presumed relevance of wrinkles on facial age, the topic has received little attention in empirical literature.”
Prompting J.Antonio Aznar-Casanova (University of Barcelona, Spain) along with Nelson Alves (Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Brazil) and Sérgio S Fukusima (University of São Paulo, Brazil) to perform a set of two experiments to help clarify the situation.
In one experiment, participants were shown pictures (wrinkly and non-wrinkly) and asked to classify them according to their (perceived) agegroup.
“Results revealed that the number of wrinkles had more influence on the perceived facial age than the type of wrinkle.”
“In the present study, we found that wrinkles increase facial age judgments. However, these results must be considered carefully.”
See: ‘How Much Older Do You Get When a Wrinkle Appears on Your Face? Modifying Age Estimates by Number of Wrinkles’ Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 17:4, 406-421 (A full copy of which may be found here)
Research research by Martin Gardiner