What do we really know about age-related stereotypes and well-being of older adults? A commentary on the state of the art.

There is a considerable body of literature on harmful consequences of age-related stereotypes-including consequences on physical and mental health. However, this commentary critically argues that the current state of the art disregards consequences of these stereotypes specifically for the well-being of older adults (i.e., outcome that is not to be confounded with mental health). To this end, the content of age-related stereotypes and the mechanisms through which they operate on physical and mental health are first outlined. The commentary then focuses on the very scarce evidence documenting how and when the well-being of older adults (as assessed directly and not as inferred from other indicators) is influenced by self-directed stereotypes. After setting out possible ways well-being may be involved in the relationship between self-directed stereotypes and physical and mental health of older adults, the present commentary argues that a better understanding of well-being would benefit strategies targeting the reduction of age-related stereotypes. Overall, this commentary on the state of the art highlights that future research is still needed to better understand both the direct and indirect relationships between age-related stereotypes and well-being that is not reducible to positive experiences of life (or hedonic well-being) but also comprises an eudaimonic component.

Only human after all? a pre-registered study on gaze behavior and humanity attributions to people with facial difference.

There is a great deal of indirect evidence suggesting that people with facial difference (FD) may be dehumanized. This research aimed to provide direct evidence of the dehumanization of people with FD based on the stigmatizing reactions they elicit. More precisely, previous findings revealed that the specific way people with FD are looked upon is related to the feelings of disgust they elicit. Since disgust fosters dehumanization, our aim was to confirm the modified pattern of visual attention towards people with FD and to determine whether it was also related to humanness perception. For that purpose, a preregistered eye-tracking study (N = 97) using a former experimental design extended to humanity attributions was conducted. This research replicates findings showing that the face of people with FD is explored differently in comparison with other human faces. However, the hypothesis that people with FD were given fewer humanity attributions was not supported. Therefore, the hypothesis of a "dehumanizing gaze" towards people with FD-beyond humanity-related attributions-is discussed in light of these findings.

Towards a better understanding of the social stigma of facial difference.

Facial difference (FD) is not only an individual experience; it is inherently social, reflecting interactions between social norms and individual attitudes. Often FD is stigmatized. In this paper, we employ a widely used stigma framework, namely the social stigma framework put forth by Pryor and Reeder (2011), to unpack the stigma of FD. This framework posits that there are four forms of stigma: public stigma, self-stigma, stigma by association, and structural stigma. We first discuss the social and psychological literature on FD as it pertains to these various forms of stigma. We then describe coping approaches for FD stigma. Lastly, we delineate evidence-based methods for addressing the various forms of FD stigma, such that future efforts can more effectively tackle the stigma of facial difference.

Look me in the eyes! A pre-registered eye-tracking study investigating visual attention and affective reactions to faces with a visible difference.

This research aims to determine how disfigurement alters visual attention paid to faces and to examine whether such a potential modified pattern of visual attention to faces with visible difference was associated, in turn, with perceiver's stigmatizing affective reactions. A pilot study (N = 38) and a pre-registered experimental eye-tracking study (N = 89) were conducted. First, the visual explorations of faces with and without disfigurement were compared. The association of these visual explorations with affective reactions were investigated next. Findings suggest that disfigurement impacts visual attention toward faces; attention is not merely attracted to the disfigured area but it is also diverted particularly from the eye area. Disfigurement also eases disgust-related, surprise-related, anxiety-related, and, to a lesser extent, hostility-related affective states. Exploratory interaction effects between attention to the eyes and to the disfigured part of the face revealed a hybrid effect on disgust-related affect and an increase in surprise-related affect when participants fixated more upon the disfigured area and fixated less upon the eyes. Thus, perceiver's attention is captured by disfigurement and also diverted from face internal features which seems to play a role in the affective reactions elicited.