Emotion Communication by the Aging Face and Body

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

As we age, our faces and bodies change, but we know little about how these physiological changes can affect how people perceive and interpret the emotions of older adults. This book reviews how the elderly communicate emotions in interactions with friends and family, in the workplace, and in healthcare settings.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.