Tasks assessing theory of mind (ToM) and non-mental state control tasks were administered to young and older adults to examine previous contradictory findings about age differences in mental state decoding. Age differences were found on a verbal ToM task after controlling for vocabulary levels. Older adults achieved significantly lower scores than did younger adults on static and dynamic visual ToM tasks, and a similar pattern was found on non-ToM control tasks. Rather than a specific ToM deficit, older adults exhibited a more general impairment in the ability to decode cues from verbal and visual information about people.
Previous research has investigated age differences in complex social perception tasks such as theory of mind and emotion recognition, with predominant findings of age-related declines. The present study investigated whether there are also age-related changes in basic aspects of social perception. Individuals' ability both to detect subtle differences in eye-gaze direction (e.g., where someone is looking in the environment) and to subsequently use these gaze cues to engage in joint attention with others was assessed. Age-related declines were found in the detection of the most subtle differences in gaze aversion. The ability to engage in joint attention by following gaze cues also declined with age. These age differences were not solely attributable to age impairments in visual perception and visual attention. The potential role of age-related neural declines in social perception problems was considered, along with the implications that age deficits in these basic social skills may have for older adults' social perception.
In a series of 1-shot economic trust games in which participants could make real monetary profits, but also risked losing money, 2 studies compared young and older adults' trust (amount invested with trustees) and trustworthiness (amount returned to investors by trustees). In Study 1, young (n = 35) and older (n = 32) participants acted as investors, and the age of simulated trustees (young, older) was manipulated. In Study 2, young (n = 61) and older (n = 67) participants acted in real life as both investors and trustees. They completed 2 face-to-face trust games with same- and other-age partners, and 3 anonymous trust games with same-, other-, and unknown-age partners. Study 1 found that young and older participants rate older trustees as appearing more trustworthy than young trustees, but neither group invest more with older than young trustees. Rather, older participants were more likely than young participants to invest money averaged across trustee age. In Study 2, there were no age-related differences in trust, but older adults were more trustworthy than young adults in anonymous games with same- and unknown-age partners. It was also found that young adults demonstrate greater reputational concerns than older adults by reciprocating more trust when face-to-face than anonymous. We discuss the complex influences of age on trust game investing and reciprocation, as well as the implications for older adults' wellbeing and financial security.
Previous research revealed age differences in following the gaze of others. To date, however, investigations have concentrated on only young faces as target stimuli. The present study explored whether varying the age of target stimuli moderated gaze following in younger and older adults. Overall, older participants showed less evidence of gaze following, but this was qualified by the age of the face viewed. Younger participants showed an own-age bias, following the gaze cues of stimuli depicting those in their own age range to a greater extent than stimuli depicting older adults. However, a similar own-age effect was not found for older participants. These findings suggest that age differences in gaze following may be driven by younger participants having an advantage for processing the gaze cues from the faces of younger adults, highlighting the importance of varying the age of the target stimuli when assessing age differences in some aspects of social perception.
All people share knowledge of cultural stereotypes of social groups--but what are the origins of these stereotypes? We examined whether stereotypes form spontaneously as information is repeatedly passed from person to person. As information about novel social targets was passed down a chain of individuals, what initially began as a set of random associations evolved into a system that was simplified and categorically structured. Over time, novel stereotypes emerged that not only were increasingly learnable but also allowed generalizations to be made about previously unseen social targets. By illuminating how cognitive and social factors influence how stereotypes form and change, these findings show how stereotypes might naturally evolve or be manipulated.
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