Apparent Presidential Aging
From the archive: originally published on News, in Data in January 2016. The text and charts appear as they ran then.
Apparent Presidential Aging
Recently, pre and 'post' images of Obama surfaced and became popular on various social media networks. It is well known that American presidents age 'fast', in fact research shows a position as head of state substantially increases mortality risk. Using http://how-old.net/, a facial recognition service powered by Microsoft's Machine Learning Group, we investigated the apparent aging rates of the last four presidents. Our work shows that Clinton aged at the greatest rate, 2.9 years of aging for every year in office, and that Bush Senior aged naturally at one year per year. Interestingly, Obama aged 1.1 years for every year in office, just slightly above chronological age.
William Jefferson Clinton
Aged at nearly three times a 'natural' rate.
George W Bush
Aged 1.7 years per year.
Barack Obama
Aged at 1.1 years per year.
George HW Bush
Aged at one year per year.
Control Study
In an effort to test the accuracy and precision of the how-old.net aging tool, we conducted a brief control study. Three 'participants' of a known age were assessed with the tool, Drake, Edward Snowden and myself. As can be seen in the below figure, how-old.net is accurate within a few years for each of the three participants.
Methods
Briefly, each 'apparent age' was determined from no fewer than three images and was subsequently analyzed by how-old.net. State of the Union photos were used for presidential apparent age determinations.
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