They may think that picking girls more than 30 years their junior helps them stay young, but parading alongside such fresh-faced beauties actually makes the likes of Ronnie Wood and Hugh Hefner look older than they are, scientists have revealed.
When one person is much younger than those around them, observers are more likely to exaggerate the age gap, they say.
Researchers discovered a person’s perceived age varies depending on who they are with. The untrained eye will pick out the face of someone who is clearly a different age from the rest of the group and exaggerate the gap. So if they are a few years older they will be perceived as a lot older and if they are slightly younger they will be perceived as much younger, said the study – bad news for celebrities such as 62-year-old Wood, whose girlfriend Ana Araujo is 32 years his junior, and Bernie Ecclestone, 80, whose new love is almost 50 years younger than him.
The study, by scientists from Jena University in Germany and reported in the journal Vision Research, said: “The founder of Playboy might be surprised by these findings. He prefers to surround himself with young women, not knowing that they make him look much older.” – Daily Mail