You young folks ever wonder why we geezers seem so cheery? The September Psychological Science explains: Studies of the negativity bias have demonstrated that negative information has a stronger influence than positive information in a wide range of cognitive domains. At odds with this literature is extensive work now documenting emotional and motivational shifts that result in a positivity effect in older adults. … The present study … suggest[s] that neural reactivity to negative images declines linearly with age, but responding to positive images is surprisingly age invariant across most of the adult life span.
I wonder whether this is due to a learning effect, where slowly people learn not to react too much, or whether it is due to neural changes (something like declining receptor numbers in the amygdala)?
There is also a bit of change in personality over time. Sanjay Srivastava, Oliver P. John, Samuel D. Gosling, Jeff Potter, Development of Personality in Early and Middle Adulthood: Set Like Plaster or Persistent Change?, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 84, No. 5. http://www.apa.org/journals...shows that there is quite a bit of drift of personality over time: conscientousness and agreeableness increases (at least up to 55+, where maybe some grumpiness starts to set in), while female neuroticism decreases (eventually reaching the male mean).
Thanks a lot for the post. Looking forward to comments.
This explains a lot.
I'd definitely bet on it being neural.
I wonder whether this is due to a learning effect, where slowly people learn not to react too much, or whether it is due to neural changes (something like declining receptor numbers in the amygdala)?
There is also a bit of change in personality over time. Sanjay Srivastava, Oliver P. John, Samuel D. Gosling, Jeff Potter, Development of Personality in Early and Middle Adulthood: Set Like Plaster or Persistent Change?, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 84, No. 5. http://www.apa.org/journals...shows that there is quite a bit of drift of personality over time: conscientousness and agreeableness increases (at least up to 55+, where maybe some grumpiness starts to set in), while female neuroticism decreases (eventually reaching the male mean).