Thinking about a limited future enhances the positivity of younger and older adults' recall: Support for socioemotional selectivity theory.

ABSTRACT: Compared with younger adults, older adults have a relative preference to attend to and remember positive over negative information. This is known as the "positivity effect," and researchers have typically evoked socioemotional selectivity theory to explain it. According to socioemotional selectivity theory, as people get older they begin to perceive their time left in life as more limited. These reduced time horizons prompt older adults to prioritize achieving emotional gratification and thus exhibit increased positivity in attention and recall. Although this is the most commonly cited explanation of the positivity effect, there is currently a lack of clear experimental evidence demonstrating a link between time horizons and positivity. The goal of the current research was to address this

SUBMITTER: Barber SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4976023 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature