Glasses add three years to age, study finds

Wearing glasses ages people by at least three years, a poll said today.

Those who wear spectacles are perceived to be older and tend to be regarded as "geeky" compared with people who do not.

On average, glasses-wearers were put at 3.3 years older than they actually were while those aged 45 and over were thought to be five years older.

The research was based on a survey of 4,000 people, who were split into two groups. The first group was given ten pictures of people with glasses and asked to guess their ages and discuss their personal attributes.

The second group was given ten pictures of the same people without glasses and asked the same questions.

Results also found that those who wore glasses were a fifth less likely to be seen as confident and were more likely to be thought of as physically weaker.

The study was carried out by One Poll for the London Vision Clinic.