衰老过程中的认知与政治意识形态。
Cognition and Political Ideology in Aging.
机构信息
Department of Neurology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, USA.
Department of Political Science, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, USA.
出版信息
J Am Geriatr Soc. 2021 Mar;69(3):762-766. doi: 10.1111/jgs.16935. Epub 2020 Nov 30.
OBJECTIVE
The impact of cognitive function and decline on political ideology is unknown. We studied the relationship between cognition and both political orientation and political policy choices in a population of older persons.
DESIGN
Longitudinal investigation.
SETTING
A retirement community and its surroundings in Southern California.
PARTICIPANTS
151 members of a longitudinal investigation of aging and dementia in the oldest-old (the 90+ Study), mean age 95 years.
MEASUREMENTS
Participants self-reported their political ideology (7-point scale from extremely liberal to extremely conservative) and policy preferences for federal spending on public schooling, aid to the poor, and protecting the environment, as well as on preferences on immigration rates, death penalty, and university admission. The same political survey was mailed to participants twice: at time one and 6-months later. Cognitive function based on neurological examination and cognitive testing was classified as normal (55%), cognitive impairment/not dementia (CIND) (33%), or dementia (12%). We calculated rank correlations between ideology and policy choices, stratified by cognitive status, and agreement between Surveys 1 and 2.
RESULTS
Political ideology/orientation was highly consistent over a six-month period (84% agreement) among the 122 who returned the second survey, with no significant relationship to cognitive status. Among cognitively impaired (CIND and dementia), however, there was significant loss of consistency between an individual's political orientation and their policy choices. Level of political engagement was high for participants, with more than 90% voting in the 2016 presidential election.
CONCLUSION
In this population of older persons, political identification on the liberal-conservative spectrum was resilient despite cognitive decline, but its meaning and function were changed. For the cognitively impaired it remained a self-defining label, but no longer operated as a higher order framework for orienting specific policy preferences. There appeared to be loss of coherence between the political orientation and political policy choices of cognitively impaired individuals. Given the high level of political engagement of these individuals, these results have substantial public policy implications.
目的
认知功能和衰退对政治意识形态的影响尚不清楚。我们研究了认知功能与老年人的政治倾向和政治政策选择之间的关系。
设计
纵向研究。
地点
南加州一个退休社区及其周边地区。
参与者
151 名参加最年长人群（90+ 研究）衰老和痴呆纵向研究的成员，平均年龄 95 岁。
测量
参与者自我报告其政治意识形态（7 分制，从极左到极右）和对联邦公共教育支出、扶贫援助、环境保护以及移民率、死刑和大学录取的政策偏好。同样的政治调查两次寄给参与者：一次是在时间 1，另一次是在 6 个月后。基于神经检查和认知测试的认知功能分为正常（55%）、认知障碍/非痴呆（CIND）（33%）或痴呆（12%）。我们按认知状态对意识形态和政策选择进行了分层，并计算了两者之间的等级相关，以及调查 1 和 2 之间的一致性。
结果
在 122 名返回第二次调查的参与者中，政治意识形态/取向在六个月的时间内高度一致（84%的一致性），与认知状态没有显著关系。然而，在认知障碍者（CIND 和痴呆症）中，个体的政治取向与其政策选择之间的一致性显著丧失。参与者的政治参与度很高，超过 90%的人参加了 2016 年总统选举。
结论
在这个老年人群体中，尽管认知能力下降，但在自由-保守光谱上的政治认同仍然具有弹性，但它的意义和功能发生了变化。对于认知障碍者来说，它仍然是一个自我定义的标签，但不再作为一个更高层次的框架来确定特定的政策偏好。认知障碍者的政治取向和政治政策选择之间似乎失去了一致性。鉴于这些人的政治参与度很高，这些结果具有重大的公共政策意义。
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