Emotion Communication by the Aging Face and Body
A Multidisciplinary View

A multidisciplinary examination of how the aging face and body affect emotion communication, crucial for all life domains.

Ursula Hess (Edited by), Reginald B. Adams, Jr. (Edited by), Robert E. Kleck (Edited by)

9781009209632, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 7 December 2023

340 pages
23.5 x 15.5 x 2 cm, 0.66 kg

As our society ages, questions concerning the relations between generations gain importance. The quality of human relations depends on the quality of emotion communication, which is a significant part of our daily interactions. Emotion expressions serve not only to communicate how the expresser feels, but also to communicate intentions (whether to approach or retreat) and personality traits (such as dominance, trustworthiness, or friendliness) that influence our decisions regarding whether and how to interact with a person. Emotion Communication by the Aging Face and Body delineates how aging affects emotion communication and person perception by bringing together research across multiple disciplines. Scholars and graduate students in the psychology of aging, affective science, and social gerontology will benefit from this over-view and theoretical framework.

Preface – Communicating emotion with an aging face and body: critical issues and theoretical considerations
Part I. Basic Processes: 1. Emotion communication and person perception
2. How social, emotional, and motivational forces affect facial appearance over time
3. Aging bodies, brains, and emotions: the physiological hypothesis of emotional aging
Part II. Aging and Aging Stereotypes: 4. Facial Aging and its influence on facial stereotypes and trait judgments
5. The intersection of race, gender/sex, and age in emotion perception from faces and bodies
6. Perceived age, stereotyping, and emotion in intergenerational communication
Part III. Impact of Aging Cues on First Impressions and Emotion Communication: 7. Youth and beauty: age-based trait impressions from faces
8. Conscious and unconscious emotion communication in intergenerational interaction
Part IV. The Effects of Facial Movement Impairment of Emotion Communication: 9. Emotional anatomy: facial expressions and botulinum toxin
10: The expression and perception of social and emotional cues in older adults with Parkinson's disease
Part V. Methodological Approaches to the Study of the Effects of Aging on Emotion Communication: 11: Computer vision for the study of older (and younger) adult faces: Approaches, Advances, and Applications
12: Using data-driven methods to advance knowledge of social face perception
Conclusion: the aging body – a proposal for future research.

Subject Areas: Social, group or collective psychology [JMH]