AgeGuess: A citizen science project on human biological and chronological age.

AgeGuess conceptually is very simple: an online game where participants post head shots of themselves and guess the ages of each other based on those photos. It was created by two research scientists, Uli Steiner and Dusan Misevic, at the Max-Planck Odense Center on the Biodemography of Aging in Denmark. The players can upload photos from any time in their life, whether it’s 10 or 50 years ago, as long as the photos are clear, focused, and don’t include other people in the frame of the shot uploaded (the age minimum for photos is 14). Users earn points based on the accuracy of their guesses and are ranked against other users; they earn 10 points for an exact guess, 7 points if they are 1-2 years off, 5 points if they are 3-5 years off, 2 points if they are 6-10 years off, and 1 point if they are more than 10 years off. They also receive 10 points for every acceptable photo they upload. Users are encouraged to upload photos from different time periods or from deceased people to add a genetic component to the resulting data. But, the underlying purpose of the site is to create a data set for research purposes into the study of human aging that is the first of its kind. (AgeGuess)

This type of data set is critical, because aging is obviously a problem that concerns everyone. By definition, aging is the act of getting older. The actual likelihood of dying exponentially increases as you get older—excepting infant mortality—as age is deleterious. Actually, the odds that someone will die after age thirty doubles about every 8 years until much older ages. But, aging is a poorly understood and highly variable process. Some humans seem to naturally die decades before others, and other humans appear decades younger than they actually are. Whether or not this is due to slower rates of aging is still to be determined. Biologically, we can measure age at the cellular level as well as holistically for the organism. But, bio-markers can be used to measure age not directly based on time -— perceived age as an example. (AgeGuess)

This Citizen Science project is interested in determining the difference between perceived age and chronological age, and how that difference can be used as a powerful aging bio-marker. The project researchers would like to see if the fact that every four years we gain one year of life expectancy changes perceived age over the years. Perceived age is also affected by stress or medical conditions, so this data set is also intended to discern whether the disparity between perceived age and chronological age changes over time, is genetically predisposed, or whether this disparity is more common to certain ethnic groups. They are also interested in seeing if the accuracy of perceiving age is heritable, more common to one age group, or more common in one ethnic group—as this would affect how that groups chooses sexual partners.

I really enjoyed participating in this Citizen Science project, as perceiving other people’s age is something we subconsciously do every day in our appraisals of those around us. Over the course of this last month, I did decently well on guessing ages. Although I never made an exact guess (sadly) I only have a standard deviation of 4 years on my guesses. I’m solidly in the middle of the rankings—ranked 1526 out of about 3000 participants so far. Interestingly enough, the guesses made about my age were fairly accurate, with my real age being 19 years, the average guess being 19 years, and only 3 years of variance and 2 years of standard deviation on guesses made about me. I assume that this is due to the photo I uploaded, as I am often told in person that I look at least 21—people are shocked when they find out I’m not even 20.  I think that Citizen Science projects like this one are an incredible way to harness the internet for social good and would absolutely participate in one again.