University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2009 Dec;35(12):1646-60. doi: 10.1177/0146167209349114.
Past findings indicate that middle-aged adults in the United States tend to be more resistant to attitude change than younger and older adults, but little is known about why this is so. The authors propose that midlife adults' disproportionate occupation of high-power social roles (which call for resoluteness) may partly explain their heightened resistance to persuasion. Using nationally representative data sets, the article first documents that in various domains the possession of social power peaks in midlife. It next documents that middle-aged adults place a high value on resoluteness, which suggests that they have internalized powerful role norms. Next, it shows that directly activating the concept of social power increases the perceived value of resoluteness. Finally, it demonstrates that the possession of powerful social roles partially mediates the relationship between age and resistance to persuasion. This work is the first to uncover a mechanism responsible for changes in attitude strength over the adult life course.
过去的研究结果表明，美国的中年成年人往往比年轻和年长的成年人更能抵制态度的改变，但对于为什么会这样知之甚少。作者提出，中年成年人不成比例地占据高权力社会角色（这需要果断），这可能部分解释了他们对说服的强烈抵制。本文使用具有全国代表性的数据集，首先证明在各个领域，社会权力的拥有在中年达到顶峰。其次，它证明了中年成年人高度重视果断，这表明他们已经内化了强大的角色规范。接下来，它表明直接激活社会权力的概念会增加果断的感知价值。最后，它表明拥有强大的社会角色部分调节了年龄与抵制说服之间的关系。这项工作首次揭示了导致成年生活过程中态度强度变化的机制。
