People after 40 look younger when they smile
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Dutch scientists have taught a computer program to determine the age and mood of people using a database containing video recordings of smiling people, and also found that a smiling person looks younger, but only when he is over 40 years old, the University of Amsterdam said.
Theo Gevers from this university and his colleagues created and posted on the Internet the largest "base of smiles", filming visitors from the NEMO University Scientific Center. The participants of the project, men and women aged 8 to 76 years (481 people got into the base) were asked to show a "demented" and sincere smile to the camera, to show other emotions - anger, sadness, surprise, horror.
Scientists analyzed the characteristics of smiles, for example, how quickly the corners of the mouth go up, and then tried to formalize these parameters so that the computer program could guess the age and emotions of a person.
In addition, in a parallel experiment, Gevers and his colleagues asked the volunteers to watch video from the database and assess the age of people, how attractive they look, and what their character is.
Comparison of the results showed that the computer program more accurately determined the age. People on average were wrong about seven years, while the computer "missed" only by six.
The study by Gevers and his colleagues also showed that people look younger when they smile, but only when they are over 40. "If you are less than 40, you have to restrain emotions if you want to look younger," the report says.
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