This volume set out to compile the state of the art of research on the perception of emotions in the aging face and body. Notably, older adults are the fastest growing age group in the world (United Nations, 2020). Yet, whereas a large body of research has focused on the ability of the elderly to perceive and use emotional information, very few studies have addressed the problem from the perspective of the (young) perceiver.

As outlined in the chapters of this book, with advancing age the very instruments of expressing emotional states (e.g., faces and bodies) change. Thus, advancing age (perhaps particularly after the age of seventy) dramatically changes facial appearance, movement behaviors, posture, gait, and vocal characteristics that are critical to social communication. Importantly, people do not only perceive emotions in others but they also use these perceived emotions (which notably can also be derived from supposedly neutral faces) to draw inferences about those others (Hareli & Hess, 2010).