Department of Psychology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO 80918, USA.
Psychol Aging. 2012 Mar;27(1):256-63. doi: 10.1037/a0023902. Epub 2011 Jul 4.
In previous research, older adults responded to mortality salience (MS) with increased tolerance, whereas younger persons responded with increased punitiveness. One possible explanation for this is that many older adults adapt to challenges of later life, such as the prospect of mortality, by becoming more flexible. Recent studies suggest that positively oriented adaptation is more likely for older adults with high levels of executive functioning. Thus, we hypothesized that the better an older adult's executive functioning, the more likely MS would result in increased tolerance. Older and younger adults were randomly assigned to MS or control conditions, and then evaluated moral transgressors. As in previous research, younger adults were more punitive after reminders of mortality; executive functioning did not affect their responses. Among older adults, high functioning individuals responded to MS with increased tolerance rather than intolerance, whereas those low in functioning became more punitive.
在先前的研究中，老年人对死亡凸显（MS）的反应是增加容忍度，而年轻人的反应则是增加惩罚性。对此的一种可能解释是，许多老年人通过变得更加灵活来适应晚年生活的挑战，例如对死亡的预期。最近的研究表明，对于执行功能水平较高的老年人来说，积极的适应更有可能。因此，我们假设老年人的执行功能越好，MS 越有可能导致增加容忍度。老年人和年轻人被随机分配到 MS 或对照条件下，然后评估道德违规者。与之前的研究一样，年轻人在被提醒死亡后更具惩罚性；执行功能并没有影响他们的反应。在老年人中，高功能个体对 MS 的反应是增加容忍度而不是不容忍，而低功能个体则变得更加惩罚性。
