Abstract
Aging has been associated with a motivational shift to positive over negative information (i.e., positivity effect), which is often explained by a limited future time perspective (FTP) within the framework of socioemotional selectivity theory (SST). However, whether a limited FTP functions similarly in younger and older adults, and whether inter-individual differences in socioemotional functioning are similarly associated with preference for positive information (i.e., positivity) is still not clear. We investigated younger (20–35 years, N = 73) and older (60–75 years, N = 56) adults’ gaze preferences on pairs of happy, angry, sad, and neutral faces using an eye-tracking system. We additionally assessed several parameters potentially underlying inter-individual differences in emotion processing such as FTP, stress, cognitive functioning, social support, emotion regulation, and well-being. While we found no age-related differences in positivity when the entire trial duration was considered, older adults showed longer fixations on the more positive face in later stages of processing (i.e., positivity shifts). This allocation of resources toward more positive stimuli might serve an emotion regulatory purpose and seems consistent with the SST. However, our findings suggest that age moderates the relationship between FTP and positivity shifts, such that the relationship between FTP and positivity preferences was negative in older, and positive in younger adults, potentially stemming from an age-related differential meaning of the FTP construct across age. Furthermore, our exploratory analyses showed that along with the age and FTP interaction, lower levels of worry also played a significant role in positivity shifts. We conclude that positivity effects cannot be solely explained by aging, or the associated reduced FTP per se, but is rather determined by a complex interplay of psychosocial and emotional features.
Highlights
Late adulthood has been characterized in several studies by increased emotional stability and emotional well-being in comparison to early adulthood (Carstensen et al, 2000, 2011)
We were mainly interested in overall age-related differences in positivity in early and late trials, we examined the interaction between Age-group × Contrast, we found no age-group differences for any relevant contrast for the two age groups
To test the significance of the predictors as a whole, we compared the fit of the full model with that of the null model comprising only age
Summary
Late adulthood has been characterized in several studies by increased emotional stability and emotional well-being in comparison to early adulthood (Carstensen et al, 2000, 2011). In several experimental settings, older adults were shown to display more attention and memory for positive and less for negative stimuli compared to younger adults (Mather and Carstensen, 2003, 2005; Knight et al, 2007; Allard and Isaacowitz, 2008). This age-group difference in greater preference for positive over negative information in information processing has been named the positivity effect, and it is assumed to play an important role in emotional functioning and wellbeing of the elderly (Carstensen and Mikels, 2005; Reed and Carstensen, 2012). Delayed onset of positivity (i.e., shifting attention toward positive and away from negative stimuli) would be consistent with an allocation of resources serving an emotion regulatory purpose, supporting the thesis that older adults with higher executive functioning show greater positivity in information processing (Mather and Knight, 2005)
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