Past studies have suggested that the intensity of subjective reactions to emotion-arousing stimuli remains stable, whereas the magnitude of autonomic reactions declines with age. The goal of the present studies was to investigate whether this evidence will generalize to newly edited films dealing with age-relevant themes such as the loss of loved ones. In Study 1, greater self-reported sadness was found in older than in younger adults in response to all films. Findings of Study 2, which were based on an independent sample, replicated those of Study 1. In addition, 6 indicators of autonomic nervous system activity were assessed. Young and old adults did not differ in their autonomic reactions to the films. This evidence suggests that when older people are exposed to stimuli featuring themes that are relevant to their age group, they show greater subjective and physiological reactions than would be expected on the basis of past research.

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We discuss the inverse-U-shaped age pattern, in terms of aging versus cohort influences, and how it complements and extends the existing literature on empathy and age.

This study examined change in self-reported empathy in a four-wave longitudinal study spanning 12 years (1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004) and the association between empathy and other measures, including daily reports of relationship experiences. Participants initially ranged in age from 10 years to 87 years. Crosssectional and longitudinal associations of age with empathy revealed divergent patterns. Whereas cross-sectional analyses suggested that older adults scored lower in empathy than younger adults, longitudinal analyses showed no age-related decline in empathy. This combined pattern suggests that the cross-sectional age-differences reflect a cohort rather than an age effect, with older cohorts reporting lower levels of empathy than younger ones. Independent of age, empathy was associated with a positive well-being (e.g., life satisfaction) and interaction profile (e.g., positive relations with others). In addition, a subsample of participants (n= 114) conducted experience-sampling about social interactions for a week. People with high self-reported empathy perceived their interactions as more meaningful, felt more positive in these interactions, and thought that their interaction partner felt also more positive. Thus, self-reported empathy was meaningfully associated with adults' actual social interactions. Keywordsempathy; age differences; cohort effect; experience sampling Empathy, the ability to understand another person's thoughts and feelings, involves emotional and cognitive processes and is a fundamental aspect of social interactions and relationships (Davis, 1994;Ickes, 1997;Singer, 2006). Moreover, empathic understanding is also an integral part of moral development and an important motivational component of prosocial and altruistic behavior (Eisenberg, 2000;Hoffman, 1977Hoffman, , 2000. Although empathy is relevant for social interactions across the entire lifespan, the development of empathy has been studied mainly in Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Daniel Grühn, North Carolina State University, Department of Psychology, 640 Poe Hall, Campus Box 7650, Raleigh, NC 27695. E-mail: E-mail: dgruehn@ncsu.edu. Daniel Grühn is now at the Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptEmotion. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2009 April 17. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript childhood and adolescence rather than adulthood and old age (e.g., Eisenberg & Fabes, 1990;Hoffman, 2000;Zahn-Waxler, Radke-Yarrow, Wagner, & Chapman, 1992). Overall, this research has shown that precursors of empathy-related abilities appear quite early in life in the form of simple emotional contagion (e.g., Hoffman, 1977Hoffman, , 2000Singer, 2006) and develop in more complex forms in childhood and adolescence in tandem with major progressions in cognitive and emotional development (e.g., Eisenberg, 2000). Some lifespan researchers (Erikson, 1968;Vaillant, 197...