Did People Used To Look Older?
Summary
TLDRThis Vsauce video explores the concept of 'retrospective aging,' examining why people from the past appear older than their years and whether this perception is real or an illusion. It delves into how lifestyle, nutrition, and healthcare changes have contributed to humans aging more slowly today. The video also touches on the influence of names on our physical appearance and the fascinating 'face-name matching effect,' concluding with the idea that our dreams may be shaped by our perceptions, influenced by the era we live in.
Takeaways
- 🕰️ People in the past appeared older at a younger age than they do now, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as 'retrospective aging'.
- 📚 Evidence from Twitter and old photos suggests that individuals from previous decades looked more mature at younger ages compared to today.
- 🧬 Research from Yale and USC indicates that modern humans are aging more slowly due to changes in lifestyle, nutrition, healthcare, and skincare.
- 🔢 The study suggests that between the early 90s and late 2000s, the biological age of people has decreased, making 60 the new 56, and 40 the new 37.5.
- 🦷 Advances in dentistry and orthodontics have significantly altered the appearance of people's faces over the last century.
- 👄 Media representation has shifted to expose larger lips across ethnicities, but the only significant change in facial features over time.
- 👓 Retrospective aging can also be influenced by short-term perspective changes, such as how high school seniors seem older to freshmen but not to themselves as seniors.
- 🎨 Superficial styles, mannerisms, and self-expression can make a significant difference in perceived age, often creating an illusion of aging.
- 👴 The concept of 'retrospective aging' is a mix of reality and illusion, where people in the past aged faster, but current perceptions are also influenced by outdated styles.
- 👕 Dressing in a manner that was once associated with youth can eventually become associated with old age as the people who popularized the style grow older.
- 👓 The idea that people named Mark look a certain way is an example of how names can influence our perception of faces, a phenomenon known as the 'face-name matching effect'.
- 🧐 The 'Dorian Gray effect' suggests that a person's name can influence their physical appearance, potentially due to self-fulfilling prophecies and societal expectations.
Q & A
What is the phenomenon of people appearing to look older in historical photos compared to their actual ages?
-The phenomenon, referred to as 'retrospective aging,' suggests that people in historical photos often appear older than they actually were, possibly due to a combination of lifestyle, nutrition, healthcare, and skincare differences compared to modern times.
What evidence supports the idea that people today are aging more slowly than in the past?
-Researchers at Yale and USC have found through the comparison of various health metrics like metabolic, cardiovascular, inflammatory, kidney, liver, and lung function that humans today are indeed aging more slowly than their historic counterparts.
How did changes in lifestyle, nutrition, and healthcare contribute to the perception of slower aging?
-Changes in these areas have led to improved health and longevity, which in turn affects the physical signs of aging, making people appear younger for longer periods compared to the past.
What role has the use of sunscreen played in the aging process?
-The use of sunscreen has been a significant factor in slowing down the aging process by protecting the skin from harmful UV rays, which are known to cause premature aging and skin damage.
How did the study conducted by researchers at Yale and USC measure the slowing down of aging?
-The study measured the slowing down of aging by comparing health metrics such as metabolic, cardiovascular, inflammatory, kidney, liver, and lung function across different time periods.
What is the concept of '60 being the new 50' as suggested by the study?
-The concept suggests that due to slower aging, the physical and health conditions associated with being 60 years old in the past are now more closely aligned with those of a 56-year-old in the present.
What role have dentistry and orthodontics played in the cosmetic appearance of people's faces?
-Dentistry and orthodontics have played a significant role in shaping the cosmetic appearance of people's faces, particularly in parts of the world where these practices are common.
What is the phenomenon of 'retrospective aging' in relation to fashion and style?
-Retrospective aging in relation to fashion and style refers to the idea that certain styles or mannerisms, once associated with youth, can over time come to be seen as representative of old age as the people who originally wore them grow older.
How does the perception of age in fashion and style contribute to the illusion of retrospective aging?
-The perception of age in fashion and style contributes to the illusion of retrospective aging by associating certain outdated or old-fashioned styles with being old, even if the style itself was once considered youthful.
What is the 'face-name matching effect' and how does it relate to the perception of age?
-The face-name matching effect is a phenomenon where people can guess a stranger's name based on their facial features more accurately than would be expected by chance alone. This effect can influence how young or old someone appears to be, as certain names are subconsciously associated with certain age groups or facial characteristics.
How might the expectations associated with a name influence a person's physical appearance?
-The expectations associated with a name can create a self-fulfilling prophecy, where individuals may grow up to fulfill those expectations by carrying themselves in ways that they believe are consistent with their names, which can include aspects of their appearance that make them seem older or younger.
What is the 'Dorian Gray effect' in the context of names and physical appearance?
-The 'Dorian Gray effect' in this context suggests that a person's appearance may come to reflect the name they were given, similar to the way the protagonist's portrait in Oscar Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' ages and reflects his deeds while he remains young.
How do people's perceptions of when old age begins differ based on various factors?
-People's perceptions of when old age begins can differ based on factors such as their own age, gender, ethnicity, and health status. For example, people under 65 tend to place the start of old age at an earlier age than those over 65, and women generally perceive old age to begin later than men.
Why do some older people think they dream in black and white?
-Some older people think they dream in black and white not because of an aging process, but because they grew up during the era of black and white TV and movies, which influenced their perception of dreams and led them to report more black and white dreams.
What is the significance of the 'time traveling hipster' photo from 1941?
-The 'time traveling hipster' photo from 1941 is significant because it sparked discussions about the possibility of time travel and the anachronistic nature of fashion. The man in the photo was dressed in a casual manner that resembled modern styles, leading to speculation that he might be a time traveler, although researchers later explained his attire as typical for the time.
Outlines
🕰️ Retrospective Aging and Perceptions of Youth
This paragraph explores the concept of 'retrospective aging,' where people appear to look older in older photographs compared to today. It discusses how lifestyle, nutrition, healthcare, and skincare, especially the use of sunscreen, have contributed to people aging more slowly. The paragraph references a study from Yale and USC that suggests we are staying younger longer, with specific age comparisons like 60 being the new 56. It also touches on the cosmetic changes in dentistry and orthodontics, and the observation that media exposure to larger lips has increased across ethnicities. The narrative concludes with a personal anecdote about the perception of age in high school and the idea that our perspective on age can change over time.
🎨 The Illusion of Retrospective Aging and Style
The second paragraph delves into how superficial styles and mannerisms can significantly alter our perception of age, supporting the hypothesis that the idea of people looking older in the past is often an illusion. It discusses how modes of self-expression, such as clothing, hairstyles, and body language, are always changing and how these can influence our perception of age. The paragraph also highlights how we may associate certain styles with old age because that's how older people dressed in the past, creating a cycle where what was once youthful becomes associated with old age over time. It concludes with a humorous anecdote about a gym teacher who consistently wore the same outfit for his yearbook photos, illustrating how styles can come to be seen as old-fashioned.
🔮 The Curiosity Box and Perceptions of Names
This paragraph introduces the Vsauce Curiosity Box, a subscription service that provides subscribers with unique items and 'brain food.' It describes the contents of the summer box, including moire illusion cards and a Pythagorean cup, which is a practical joke item. The paragraph also mentions that proceeds from the box support Alzheimer's research. Additionally, it discusses the 'face-name matching effect,' where people can associate certain names with specific facial features, and how this can influence perceptions and even self-fulfilling prophecies regarding a person's appearance and behavior.
🧔 The Influence of Names on Perceptions and Self-Identity
The fourth paragraph examines how names can influence perceptions and self-identity. It discusses research that shows people have certain expectations based on names and how these can affect how individuals carry themselves. The paragraph also explores the idea that parents may unconsciously prefer names that match their child's facial features, which can reinforce the face-name matching effect. It concludes with a discussion on how people's names can affect their emotional likability and even voting outcomes, suggesting that names can have a profound impact on social interactions and personal identity.
👵 Aging, Dreams, and Perceptions of Time
The final paragraph discusses various aspects of aging, including the average age people consider as the beginning of old age, which is 73.7 according to a study. It explores how different demographics view old age, with younger people wishing to be older and vice versa. The paragraph also touches on the idea that people's desires for their eternal age average out to 36. It concludes with a discussion on the perception of dreams being in black and white, suggesting that this is due to the prevalence of black and white media in the past rather than an actual change in the nature of dreams themselves.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Retrospective Aging
💡Lifestyle and Nutrition
💡Metabolic Function
💡Dentistry and Orthodontics
💡Self-Expression
💡Anachronism
💡Stereotypes
💡Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
💡Face Name Matching Effect
💡Perception of Age
💡Cultural Shift
Highlights
People in the past looked older at a younger age, a phenomenon known as 'retrospective aging'.
Evidence of retrospective aging comes from shared photos showing parents in their early twenties looking older than their age.
Retrospective aging is influenced by factors like lifestyle, nutrition, smoking habits, healthcare, and skincare, including sunscreen use.
Researchers at Yale and USC found that humans are aging more slowly than their historic counterparts, with measures of various functions indicating a 'younger for longer' trend.
The concept of '60 is the new 50' is supported by research suggesting a shift in the perceived age of different life stages.
Dentistry and Orthodontics have played a significant role in the cosmetic appearance of faces in the past century.
Media exposure to larger lips across ethnicities has been the only significant change in facial features from the 1930s to today.
Retrospective aging can also be a result of perspective, as our perception of age changes as we age ourselves.
Superficial styles and mannerisms can significantly impact the perceived age of individuals.
The 'face-name matching effect' suggests that people can associate certain names with specific facial features.
Names may influence a person's physical appearance through a self-fulfilling prophecy, where individuals grow to match societal expectations associated with their names.
The 'Dorian Gray effect' is a term used to describe the phenomenon where a person's appearance may reflect the name they were given.
Parents may unconsciously prefer names that match their child's facial features, reinforcing the face-name matching effect.
The average American wishes to be 36 years old forever, reflecting a desire for a balance between youth and maturity.
Older individuals are more likely to report dreaming in black and white, potentially due to the influence of black and white media from the 20th century.
The perception of color in dreams may be influenced more by cultural and technological factors rather than an inherent change in the dreams themselves.
The concept of dreams being like moving pictures may be due to the lack of a better comparison, as both are immaterial and contain movement and narrative.
Transcripts
hey Vsauce Michael here at the age of
18. Carl Sagan looked like a teenager
but it doesn't take long in an old high
school yearbook to find teenagers who
look surprisingly old
these people are all in their 20s but so
are these people
this is Elizabeth Taylor when she was
just 17 and here are some high school
students from the 70s
did people used to look older Brandon
McCarthy asked on Twitter and evidence
poured in people shared photos of their
parents in their early twenties their
dad at 21 their mom at 18 or 19. their
dad at 45. one user shared their husband
at 27 and what his father looked like at
23.
and there's pretty much an entire
subculture around how old footballers
looked decades ago 24
31 33 29
27.
it's not uncommon to think that there's
something more grown up about the way
people used to be to look back and think
that people seemed older at a younger
age than they do now
let's call it retrospective aging it
doesn't happen to everyone people do not
and never have aged similarly and
there's even the opposite observation
that kids these days grow up too fast
but it's a popular question and subject
of numerous memes
so
is it real
or is it an illusion fueled by
cherry-picked examples that feeds Rosy
Nostalgia for a time when people were
tough and didn't have it as easy as you
kids have it now
well as it turns out
both
humans today really are aging more
slowly than their historic counterparts
changes in lifestyle nutrition smoking
habits Healthcare early life conditions
and Skin Care particularly the use of
sunscreen are a huge part of it by
comparing measures of metabolic
cardiovascular inflammatory kidney liver
and lung function across time
researchers at Yale and USC have found
that we are in fact staying younger for
longer than we used to so does that mean
that 60 is the new 50.
almost their results suggest that
between the early 90s and the late 2000s
60 became the new
56. 40 became the new 37 and a half and
20 became the new 19. oh also during the
last century dentistry and Orthodontics
have played a huge cosmetic role in the
kinds of faces we see in parts of the
world
but interestingly when faces in
magazines are measured from the 1930s to
today the only significant change has
been that across all ethnicities the
media is now exposing us to larger lips
also retroactive aging can occur over
short time spans when I was a freshman
the seniors in my high school seemed so
old to me
by the time I was a senior myself I
looked in the mirror and at my peers and
I was like we are them now but we don't
seem as old as they did
what's going on isn't just about bodies
first of all the seniors I looked at
when I was a freshman truly were older
than me at that time they graduated and
went away and later when I was a senior
I saw myself as I was but in my mind's
eye I saw the earlier seniors as they
appeared to me when I was younger
retrospective aging seems to also be
about perspective let's go back to this
tweet this is George wimp playing Norm
on the TV show Cheers now when cheers
premiered went was indeed 34 but I
looked it up and this image is actually
from episode 24 of season 5 when Wint
was 38 so we're not comparing Apples to
Apples here however this is an image of
George went at 34 and Ashley Fairbanks
made some alterations and a good point
however here's the rub these alterations
don't make Wint look more like a 34 year
old they make him look more like a 34
year old
today
similarly giving the Golden Girls modern
day hairstyles and makeup drops their
apparent age a lot superficial Styles
and mannerisms can often make not just a
big difference
but all the difference which supports
the hypothesis that retrospective aging
is often
an illusion
modes of self-expression are always
changing clothing
hairstyles
accessories makeup
mannerisms language body language now
modes can come back but never exactly
the context is always a little bit
different
and from what's available or acceptable
at any one time we each draw ways of
appearing or being in the world and even
if you don't care about how you look or
think about how you act what options you
even have are dictated by what's
currently popular or normal or being
pushed on people like you
few of us stay at the stream drawing
what's new all our lives for various
reasons we often wander away with our
catch perhaps it's because we settle
into an identity we're comfortable with
or fear the taboo of not dressing our
age or simply run out of time to care
but when we're gone
the stream keeps changing
and we get older and continue to use the
mannerisms and styles we grabbed a while
back
eventually to whatever those Styles
initially evoked a new connotation is
added
old person
not because the look or behavior is
intrinsically for the elderly but
because those who use it us became old
ourselves
if you want to look older what do you do
well you can dress the way older people
dress and the thing is that's often how
they used to dress too
we think people looked older in the past
because they look the way old people do
today
Dale Irby a gym teacher at Prestonwood
Elementary School in Dallas Texas posed
for his first yearbook photo in 1973.
the following year he accidentally wore
the same outfit again he says he was
embarrassed at first but his wife Kathy
challenged him to do it again
so he did
and he never stopped
what he gave us is a great exaggerated
example of how what once connoted youth
comes to be associated with old age the
people we keep seeing a style on get
older and older themselves until we
think of the style itself as being for
old people
retrospective aging then is double
pronged both real and illusory people in
the past really did age faster than us
because of differences in nutrition and
lifestyle and medicine but much if not
most can be chalked up to the fact that
we think people like this are dressed
like old people but that's an
anachronism they're dressed like old
people from the future
the old people they would become
has anyone ever dressed like a young
person from the future well it happened
in 1941 at the reopening of the South
Fork bridge in Canada a crowd came out
to celebrate and photos were taken in
2010 the photos were digitized and
placed online that's when this guy was
noticed a time traveling hipster
why a time traveler wouldn't bother to
blend in and why with all of history to
visit he chose the reopening of a bridge
in the 40s
no one knew the photo was confirmed to
be undoctored and researchers put
forward the idea that this man
was not in fact a time traveler that his
shirt wasn't an ironic screen print but
simply bore the logo of the Montreal
Maroons a nearby hockey team at the time
they said his sunglasses and knit
sweater were not unusual for the 40s nor
was his portable camera the only thing
that was unusual about him was how
casual his attire was
and they're probably right but this all
raises the exciting possibility that
someone out there right now possibly
even you is unknowingly dressed like
people in the future will and your
appearance in photos will someday freak
them out
you know it might be fun to start
dressing even more casually or in some
other odd way on the off chance that you
happen to nail it and years from now you
are worshiped as a time traveler
oh that reminds me of today's sponsor
hi I'm Michael Stevens would you like to
look like you're from the future well
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this year our summer box contains our
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fill it up carry it around take a drink
um
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wow
whoa
who's that guy
does he look like a bill a mark a Justin
or a josh
pause right now if you'd like to think
about it
according to research from Millsaps
College in Miami University
this is Mark
or at least this is what we think people
named Mark look like
by asking people to make and rate
digitally created faces researchers were
able to put together prototypical faces
for a number of different names
this is apparently what we think a Josh
looks like a bill a Justin a Dan a Brian
a Tom and Andy
the idea that names might conjure
certain face shapes in our minds isn't
that strange for example there's
Wolfgang Kohler's famous finding that
when asked which of these shapes is
named buba and which is named Kiki
people of all different ages and
cultures and languages overwhelmingly
assign Kiki to the spiky one and buba to
the Blobby one and sure enough it
certainly seems to work with names too
which one of these men is Tim and which
is Bob
well almost unanimously people feel like
this is Tim and this is Bob
but are these men actually named Tim and
Bob
well there's the rub just because we
associate certain names certain sounds
with certain shapes doesn't mean we're
right
there's no such thing as a biological
name if a person still goes by the same
name they were given as a baby long
before anyone knew what they would look
like as an adult well surely there won't
be a connection
but as it turns out
there is
believe it or not in a multiple choice
setting people can guess a stranger's
name just by looking at their face more
often than we would expect from luck
alone it's called the face name matching
effect
here's a stimulus from zwebner's
research
this man is named Jacob Dan
Joseph
or Nathaniel
by just randomly picking a name people
should get this right 25 of the time but
zwebner found that people picked the
correct answer
Dan nearly 40 percent of the time
what's going on
can names actually cause us to grow to
look a certain way
well apparently they can it has been
called a Dorian Gray effect in Oscar
Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray a
portrait of the protagonist ages and
grotesquely reflects his evil Deeds
while he himself remains young and pure
looking in a similar way it seems that
in some cases our own appearance can
come to reflect the name we were given
but I kind of think it's really more of
a reverse story and gray effect I mean
in the book dorian's reality affects the
appearance of his portrait but the face
name matching effect goes the other way
a inanimate sign a name influences our
actual physical appearance
well anyway it's not news that a
person's name can lead others to have
certain expectations of them and treat
them accordingly it's been found for
example that multiracial faces given
European names are rated as looking more
European than the same faces are when
presented with non-european names
the expectations a name carries with it
may create a self-fulfilling prophecy
whereby as a person grows up they're
motivated to fulfill those expectations
carry themselves in ways people think
someone with their name should and even
like dislike accentuate hide use and
avoid different parts of their face and
body depending on whether or not those
parts match their name
it's been found that faces and names
that match are emotionally liked more
than faces and names that don't analysis
of voting data has shown that senatorial
candidates earn 10 more votes when their
names fit their faces very well then
when they fit very poorly now with that
in mind part of the effect could
literally come from the fact that
although parents don't know what their
kid will look like as an adult the
parents do know what they look like and
without knowing it tend to prefer names
that match their faces which are likely
to resemble their child's face as well
but not always
if the dissonance is too great a person
can always change their name either
completely or by simply choosing a
nickname if I had been just a little bit
different I Michael could have always
gone by Mike the fact that people can
adjust their names to fit them of course
merely strengthens the face name
matching effect
by studying whether the correct name
could be guessed when different parts of
a face were occluded researchers were
able to develop heat maps showing which
parts of the face different names are
most characteristically associated with
apparently looking like an an is all
about the tip of the nose it's the
bridge of the nose for Arthurs and the
philtrum or snot trough for Benjamins
aurelis are recognized by their face
spiders
let's go back to old people
how old is an old person
73.7 that's according to results
published in the Journal of American
geriatrics last year it's the average
age people gave when asked when does old
age begin
people under 65 on average said 71 and
people over 65 on average said 77. women
said old age began three years later
than men did white people said it began
eight years later than non-whites did
and people who felt healthy placed old
age later in life than those who felt
less healthy
but how old do people want to be
well that depends on how old they
already are in America the only people
who are the age they would like to be
are 21 year olds
well younger than 21 wish they were
older and people older than 21 wish they
were younger people who are 40 wish they
were 30 people who are 60 wish they were
40 and people who are 90 wish they were
60. when people are asked if they could
be one age forever the average American
picks 36 which is actually how old I am
right now funny enough
here's something else that's funny
old people are more likely to think they
dream in black and white
not because it's part of the aging
process but because they are veterans of
the great black and white dream epidemic
of the 20th century prior to the 1900s
Aristotle Descartes Freud everyone who
wrote about the topic reported that
dreams contained color
but as Humanity moved into the 20th
century the number of people reporting
color in their dreams dropped just as
quickly as the popularity of new black
and white movies and TV rows
by the 60s as color TV and movies became
more and more common reports of colored
dreams started going back up and today
people who grew up with black and white
TV continue to report more black and
white dreams than those who didn't and
later studies across China found the
same thing the frequency of black and
white dreaming correlated strongly with
how common black and white TV was in a
person's area
so did black and white movies and TV
literally change our dreams
well first of all it's not clear whether
dreams themselves actually changed or if
people just started thinking differently
about their dreams
we're trying but we still haven't found
a way to get direct access to dream
content
Eric's switchgeible has pointed out that
as far as we know dreams may not be in
color or black and white or sepia or
anything they may be primarily
indeterminate in color as they happen
and only later during recall do we
confabulate details about color he
Compares dreaming to reading is a novel
in color or black and white as you read
a story what do you see in your mind it
might be the case that dreams vaporous
as they are are something we simply have
a terrible grip on and that movies and
TV shows have given us the illusion of
understanding them in fact switchable
has speculated that smells and touch
Sensations are rare in dreams today but
future people with smelly touchy-feely
VR shows might think that they dream
with lots of textures and odors and find
it strange
maybe even frightening that few of us
seem to
but why would we think that dreams were
like moving pictures and not normal
Waking Life
well no one knows it might be that
motion pictures are just simply the
closest thing we have to dreaming that
isn't dreamy
unlike still images paintings
photographs tapestries Motion Pictures
and dreams can contain movement and
narrative and cause and effect and
unlike stage plays or real life Motion
Pictures and dreams are not made of
anything that is even remotely similar
to what they depict
they're both made of phantoms
images are uncanny things a person in an
image is Frozen in time but yet can seem
to grow old our own image can depend on
what we are called and they're the
closest thing we have to what our mind
does when we're away
do you get the picture
or does the picture get you
and as always
for watching
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