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Older adults are more likely than younger ones to perceive dishonest faces as trustworthy. The new findings help explain why older people are more likely to fall victim to fraud.
Up to 80 percent of scam victims are over 65, according to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Some experts suspect that older people are more vulnerable to fraud because they are more trusting than younger adults.
A team led by Doctor Shelley Taylor at the University of California, Los Angeles, set out to explore whether older adults judge trustworthiness differently from younger adults. Photographs of faces selected to look trustworthy, neutral, or untrustworthy were shown to 119 older adults (ages 55 to 84) and 24 younger adults (ages 20 to 42). The participants were asked to rate each face based on how trustworthy or approachable it seemed. The scientists also used functional MRI to look at brain activity....