Old people aren't rude,
just uninhibited: new research
If you suffered from piles, would
you want your friends asking about your condition in public? Most
people wouldn't, yet new research suggests that the older you become
the more likely you are to make someone blush with embarrassment in
that way.
But old people may not intend to
be rude: in fact, age-related changes in brain function may explain
their lack of tact, according to a new Australian study just
published in the journal Psychology and Aging.
Tests carried out by researchers
at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, found that people
aged 65 to 93 years were more likely to ask each other such personal
questions in a public setting than younger people aged 18 to 25 (see
example below).
Yet the study also found that
older people were just as likely as younger ones to agree that
making public inquiries about private issues was socially
inappropriate and embarrassing: so why do older people blurt out
such discomforting questions?
The ability to inhibit thoughts
and actions is critical for socially appropriate discourse but that
ability appears to weaken due to changes in brain function related
to the normal ageing process, according to one of the authors of the
report, Associate Professor Bill von Hippel, of the UNSW School of
Psychology.
"It's not just that older people
were more likely than younger people to ask personal questions,"
says Professor von Hippel. "In fact, young people in our study were
more likely to ask each other questions of a personal nature, but
they usually did so in private.
"It seems that young adults have a
greater ability to hold their tongue than older adults in contexts
where it is inappropriate to discuss personal issues." Behaving
badly like this also seems to have negative consequences for peer
relationships, particularly for older people.
"Young people weren't too bothered
when their friends were occasionally inappropriate, but older adults
felt much less close to those acquaintances who asked about their
private lives in public," says Professor von Hippel.
Are you tactful?
In the research project, small
groups of friends were asked questions like this about each other:
Imagine that you have some private medical condition (for example,
haemorrhoids). Your friend knows about your condition. You are alone
together with your friend, maybe at home having a coffee together.
Would your friend
inquire/comment about your condition?
How about if you were at a
gathering with other people when your friend arrives. Would your
friend inquire/comment about your condition in front of the others?
Similar questions were asked about recent weight gain, personal
family problems, etc.
###
ABOUT BILL VON HIPPEL
Bill von Hippel, PhD, is
associate professor in the school of psychology at the University of
New South Wales (Sydney, Australia). His research interests include
prejudice and stereotyping, social-cognitive ageing, and
evolutionary psychology.
Homepage:
http://www.psy.unsw.edu.au/Users/BHippel/
Now,
keep up to date with daily feeds of newly posted stories about America's
Seniors...click on the box to the left