Journal article
Older is wiser? It depends who you ask... and how you ask
Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, Vol.24(1), pp.94-114
01/02/2017
DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2016.1171292
PMID: 27070433
Abstract
Interacting with older adults can trigger a number of stereotypes. Negative stereotypes tend to dominate, but a persistent positive perception of aging in the popular psyche is that age brings wisdom. Despite this common belief, previous research suggests that the relationship between age and wisdom is weak and inconsistent. We propose that this is due to opposing perceptions of aging - gains in life experience and socioemotional skills, counteracted by declines in cognitive skill - that also vary with characteristics of the perceiver and the context. We investigated these paradoxical perceptions of aging by asking younger (aged 20-40) and older (aged 60-80) adult judges to rate adult speakers (aged 30-89) on the basis of their responses to three narrative prompts. Several aspects of wisdom were judged, including those related to cognitive skills, and those related to socioemotional aspects of wisdom. We examined the impact on ratings of speaker and rater characteristics, as well as the interaction of these characteristics with the dimension being rated. Findings showed that the wisdom ratings were higher for speakers with better verbal fluency, and that the relationship between age and perceived wisdom was moderated by the speaker's gender. Consistent with prior work, speaker age (relative to rater's age) had a negative effect on cognitive aspects of wisdom, but a positive effect on socio-affective aspects of wisdom. Implications for understanding age-related stereotypes and conceptions of wisdom are discussed.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Older is wiser? It depends who you ask... and how you ask
- Creators
- Jean K. Gordon - University of IowaLarissa M. Jordan - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, Vol.24(1), pp.94-114
- Publisher
- Routledge
- DOI
- 10.1080/13825585.2016.1171292
- PMID
- 27070433
- ISSN
- 1382-5585
- eISSN
- 1744-4128
- Grant note
- FFS-LI-07-297.R1 / John Templeton Foundation/The University of Chicago
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 01/02/2017
- Academic Unit
- Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Record Identifier
- 9984258741702771
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