Aged aren't rude; Just uninhibited
September 12, 2005
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 UNSW study just
published in the journal Psychology and Aging.
Tests carried out by researchers in the School of Psychology 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.
"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
UNSW. His research interests include prejudice and stereotyping,
social-cognitive ageing, and evolutionary psychology.
University of New South Wales: http://www.unsw.edu.au/