Age biases the judgment rather than the perception of an ambiguous figure

Abstract Older participants who are briefly presented with the ‘my wife/mother-in-law’ ambiguous figure estimate its age to be higher than young do. This finding is thought result of a subconscious social group bias that influences participants’ perception figure. Because people better able recognize similarly aged individuals, expected perceive as woman, while older more likely an lady. We replicate difference in estimates, but find no relationship between and their leads us conclude positive estimates explained by own-age anchor effect, which holds use own yard stick judge figure, regardless whether woman or lady perceived. Our results disqualify original example cognitive penetrability: biases judgment not perception.