How Others View Your Attempts to Look Younger

Image by Jerzy Górecki from Pixabay

No matter how many years young you are, there are a wide variety of ways to improve your looks at any age and many reasons to undertake the effort. Whether you are in search of a new job or a new partner or just seeking to boost your self-esteem, your perceived motivation can predict how others react to your efforts. Research explains.

The Dynamics of "De-Aging"

Julie Ober Allen et al. (2024), in a study entitled How Old Do I Look? examined the experience of aging within an over-50 population in the United States.[i] They began by acknowledging that personal appearance reveals both age and stage in life, both of which activate social stereotypes and prejudice. They note that for older adults, appearance-related perceptions and related behaviors can impact the experience of aging, which in turn may influence health. Allen et al. found, among other things, that most adults in their study (59%) reported believing they appeared relatively younger than their peers, 35% reported they appeared the same age, and only 6% believed they appeared older. About a third of their participants reported investing in cultivating a more youthful appearance.

Regarding self-perception and experiencing aging, Allen et al. found that participants who appeared relatively younger reported more positive and less negative experiences of aging while appearing older showed the opposite effect. They also found that investing in looking younger was linked with both more positive and more negative experiences of aging, with very little sociodemographic variation. Regarding the impact on health, Allen et al. found that more positive and less negative experiences of aging were linked with enhanced mental and physical health.

When Chasing Youth, Motives Matter

Michael Jeanne Childs and Alex Jones (2023) investigated the aging experience from an outsider’s perspective, examining how others view people who engage in “age concealment.”[ii] Studying a sample of 306 participants, they expanded existing research that found people are viewed differently based on what type of concealment is used, underlying motivation, and age. They added perceiver factors such as age, gender, and intrasexual competition, using middle-aged women as targets because they are the highest consumers of cosmetic treatments.

Childs and Jones also found that the higher females scored in intrasexual competition, the less positive ratings they delivered. They also found that women evaluated targets most positively when age concealment was motivated by concerns with self-esteem and employment, in that order, and evaluated least positively when it was motivated by romance. Men, in contrast, did not arrive at different evaluations based on motivation.

Childs and Jones concluded that, in general, middle-aged women who try to recapture their youth are viewed negatively by other highly competitive women, especially when seeking to look younger is done to attract partners rather than to find work or to boost self-esteem. Their findings suggest that it is not the treatment selected but the psychological response by others that impacts how engaging in appearance alteration is viewed.

Inner Beauty Shines Brightest

As a practical matter, there are a myriad of ways people seek to look younger, from surgery to changes in diet and nutrition. Yet the most attractive qualities shine from the inside. Kindness, compassion, humility, love, and respect continue to draw others toward us, demonstrating that the best things in life are free.