... then 14 year old females who looked similar would likely be judged to be 24.

Similarly, and for example again, some 25 year old females can behave like 14 year olds - particularly when they are drunk - whereas many 14 year-olds can behave like 20 year olds - particularly if they are trying to pick up older men.

In practice, therefore, the overlap in perceived age can be very large indeed - particular if the observer is drunk - and the context provided by others is likely to have some significant bearing on the issue.

Furthermore, only a buffoon would presume that the quality and quantity of information that has a bearing on someone's age and that emanates from a photograph is equivalent to the information that would likely be available during real-life social interactions- information that is likely to be even more confusing (or deceiving) for those who have been drinking.

And, as a psychologist, one would have thought that Vincent Egan would be keenly aware of this.

But, apparently not.

Because Vincent Egan clearly thinks that his experiment gives him the licence to say that ...

“This study suggests that alcohol consumption and make-up use do not interfere with how old we perceive someone to be."

And, in my view, it is partly because ridiculous and flimsy research such as this continues to get published that psychologists have such a bad reputation these days.

Basically, what Vincent Egan has done is this.

He has found nothing. And from this nothing, he has conjured up a claim about a very serious matter which can have very serious consequences for very many people.

This is not Psychology.

This is utter rubbish.

Designed by Vincent Egan, in my view, simply to get funding and to further a career.


mm46@le.ac.uk

Dear Dr Egan

I read about your study in the Times today concerning the effects of alcohol and make-up on age perception.

Rarely have I read such nonsense.

And I have said as much on my website.

Furthermore, I would add that many psychologists might consider it highly unethical for you to make claims from your research that your research does not justify - particularly when your claims might affect serious criminal trials.

And your claim that "alcohol consumption and make-up use do not interfere with how old we perceive someone to be," does not follow from your research.

At best, your research might validly allow you to suggest that, "alcohol consumption and make-up use do not interfere with how old we perceive someone to be WHEN WE ONLY LOOK AT PHOTOGRAPHS OF THEIR FACES."

In addition, the lack of effect regarding make-up might have much more to do with the ineffectiveness of the type of make-up used in your particular photographs rather than with anything else.

Furthermore, in the real world, the way in which people behave is also likely to have some significant bearing on their perceived age.

Your research is so far removed from the typical situation wherein stranger males and females amorously interact with each other that, in my view, you make a mockery of the whole subject of psychology when you publicly suggest otherwise.

Do you really think that clinically asking people to assess ten photographs of complete strangers bears any resemblance at all to what actually goes on when sexually-charged couples who are attracted to each other and who are imbued with alcohol engage intimately with each other?

Have you never had such an experience yourself? - and been almost blinded by it, and oblivious to just about everything else?

It is absolutely nothing like looking at a photograph of a complete stranger for 10 seconds.

The idea that these two situations are remotely similar is utter nonsense.

It seems to me that your research and your conclusions are so full of holes - and I could demonstrate many more than those alluded to above - that you have absolutely no justification for the claims that you are making - claims that could easily pervert the course of justice in numerous criminal cases.

It also seems to me that you have simply performed an extremely trivial experiment and failed to find any effect. And from this failure to find any effect you seem to have had the effrontery to make public pronouncements that will likely help to criminalise many innocent young men.

Furthermore, there are thousands of studies attesting to the fact that high alcohol consumption interferes with attention, perception and working memory in numerous ways. As such, there are numerous ways in which your claims are likely in the future to be found to be seriously misjudged - and embarrassingly so would be my guess.

Indeed, at least one gaping flaw in your conclusion stems from the fact that the females in your photographs were not actively trying to persuade your male subjects that they were of any particular age. In real life, however, females do engage in such ploys. And those men who have taken alcohol are surely more easily bamboozled by them.

Finally, in your press release you state that, "having consumed even large amounts of alcohol does not lead a man to think they look even older."

But you cannot validly make such a claim from your research, because you did not investigate the effects of alcohol on 'a man'.

You did a between-subjects experiment. As such, the best that you can say is that the men in your experiment who had drunk alcohol did not differ from those men who had not. And given that in both cases the samples were self-selecting, your findings are very likely to conflate a host of variables of which you took no account - which could easily explain further why you found no effect.

All in all, therefore, you appear to have no reasonable justification for the wild pronouncements that you have made to the media - pronouncements which seem likely to promote prejudice in many trials.

Best wishes,

Harry

webmaster at www.angryharry.com