A CROSS-CULTURAL-COMPARISON OF IMPRESSIONS CREATED BY AGE-RELATED VARIATIONS IN GAIT

Cross-cultural similarities and differences in impressions of age-rela ted gait qualities were investigated. Specifically, Korean subjects' p erceptions of the age, sex, and traits of 5 to 70 year old American me n and women, whose gaits were depicted in point-light displays, were c ompared with American subjects' perceptions documented by Montepare an d Zebrowitz-McArthur (1988). Substantial cross-cultural agreement was found for perceptions of the walkers' age and sex. Moreover, with walk ers' perceived age and sex controlled, both American and Korean rating s of the walkers' strength and happiness showed a linear decrease with age, and ratings of their sexiness showed a curvilinear relationship to age. Whereas American ratings of dominance showed a linear decrease with walkers' age, no such relationship was observed for Korean ratin gs. The findings supported both the ecological theory of social percep tion and an interactionist model of cross-cultural perception, which s uggest that some reactions to gait information are universal while oth ers are determined by culturally specific values which may influence t he movements of younger and older individuals and the meanings perceiv ers associate with these movements.