Study Finds Older Adults Less Distracted by Negative Information

A study by University of Southern California (USC) researchers published in Emotion investigated "emotion-induced blindness," or the distractions caused by emotionally arousing stimuli, reports ScienceDaily . The team looked at how older adults prioritize emotional information in experiments that used a quickly presented sequence of images. Both younger and older adults exhibited emotion-induced blindness, but older adults were more distracted by positive images and less distracted by negative ones. "Older adults seem to view their world with a filter that cares less about negative information than younger adults — to the point that, without even having time to think about and reflect on what they are seeing, they give less attention to it," said USC's Briana Kennedy. She noted the images were presented very rapidly, which enabled the research team to measure the early levels of cognition and determine how something that's emotional can disrupt our perception and awareness of things that come after it. Kennedy suggested, "If we can better understand older adults' filter or priority mechanism for things that are positive — that also cares less about things that are negative — that might eventually help identify strategies that other people can use to overcome negative experiences."