Aging

old hand with wlaking stickOlder people cannot lie as convincingly as younger people, are worse at detecting when others are lying, and the latter is linked to age-related decline in emotion recognition, new University of Otago research suggests.

Department of Psychology researchers Ted Ruffman, Janice Murray and Jamin Halberstadt compared young and older adults’ skills at deception as judged by listeners within and outside their age group. Dr Murray presented the findings today at the Association of Psychological Science’s annual convention in Washington, D.C.

The study involved 60 participants being shown video clips of 20 people expressing their actual or false views on topical issues such as factory farming and stem cell use in humans. Ten of the speakers were aged 30 or under and 10 were 60 or over. Two clips of each speaker were shown; one in which they were lying, and the other being truthful.

The 60 listeners, who consisted of two equal-sized groups with average ages of 21 and 71, were asked to determine if the person in each clip was being truthful or lying. They also underwent tests that required judgments of emotional expression and age in faces.

Associate Professor Halberstadt says the results of the lie detection test showed that both young and older listeners found it easier to differentiate truths and lies when the speaker was an older adult compared to a young adult.

“It could be that older people are less convincing liars because the kinds of cognitive abilities required for successful deceit are also those that tend to deteriorate with age,” he says.

Lying places demands on memory and planning ability (e.g., formulating a plausible argument, keeping story facts straight) and on social understanding (e.g., judging whether a particular argument will convince a listener, as well as keeping track of a listener’s response as the lie unfolds to potentially alter the argument). [continue reading…]

Less education linked to ageing

Telomer-structure

Three-dimensional molecular structure of a telomere (G-quadruplex) Wikepedia

People who leave education with fewer qualifications may age more quickly, according to new research.

A group of scientists led by BHF Professor Andrew Steptoe separated study participants into four groups, according to how long they stayed in education.

The researchers found that people who left education earlier had shorter ‘caps’, called telomeres, on the ends of their DNA – a marker of ageing in cells. As we age we’re more at risk from heart disease. [continue reading…]

Happiness peaks in our eighties

Aged cupid

© istockphoto

A book called You’re Looking Very Well,[*this is not an affliate link] written by Lewis Wolpert, emeritus professor of biology at University College London, suggests that most people were “averagely happy” in their teens and twenties, declining until early middle age as they try to support a family and a career. “But, from the mid-forties, people tend to become ever more cheerful and optimistic, perhaps reaching a maximum in their late seventies or eighties.

 

A study published by the American National Academy of Sciences, based on a survey of 341,000 people, found that enjoyment of life dwindled throughout early adulthood but began an upward trend in the late forties, and continued to increase until reaching a peak at 85. Read more

Source:
TheTelegraph Time

Are you afraid of becoming disabled in old age, of not being able to dress yourself or walk up and down the stairs? Staying physically active before symptoms set in could help. But so could going out to eat, playing bingo and taking overnight trips.

According to research conducted at Rush University Medical Center, higher levels of social activity are associated with a decreased risk of becoming disabled. The study has just been posted online and will be published in the April issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences. [continue reading…]