Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2022 Jul 18;17(7):e0268713. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268713. eCollection 2022.
Do adults of different ages differ in their focus on positive, negative, or neutral information when making decisions? Some research suggests an increasing preference for attending to and remembering positive over negative information with advancing age (i.e., an age-related positivity effect). However, these prior studies have largely neglected the potential role of neutral information. The current set of three studies used a multimethod approach, including self-reports (Study 1), eye tracking and choice among faces reflecting negative, neutral, or positive health-related (Study 2) and leisure-related information (Study 3). Gaze results from Studies 2 and 3 as well as self-reports from Study 1 showed a stronger preference for sources of neutral than for positive or negative information regardless of age. Findings also suggest a general preference for decision-relevant information from neutral compared to positive or negative sources. Focusing exclusively on the difference between positive (happy) and negative (angry) faces, results are in line with the age-related positivity effect (i.e., the difference in gaze duration between happy and angry faces was significantly larger for older than for younger adults). These findings underscore the importance of neutral information across age groups. Thus, most research on the positivity effect may be biased in that it does not consider the strong preference for neutral over positive information.
不同年龄段的成年人在做决策时，对积极、消极或中性信息的关注是否存在差异？一些研究表明，随着年龄的增长，人们越来越倾向于关注和记住积极信息而不是消极信息（即与年龄相关的正性效应）。然而，这些先前的研究在很大程度上忽略了中性信息的潜在作用。当前这组三项研究采用了多方法的方法，包括自我报告（研究 1）、眼动追踪以及对反映负面、中性或正面与健康相关（研究 2）和休闲相关的信息（研究 3）的面孔的选择。研究 2 和 3 的注视结果以及研究 1 的自我报告均表明，无论年龄大小，人们都更倾向于选择中性信息源，而不是积极或消极信息源。研究结果还表明，与积极（快乐）和消极（愤怒）面孔相比，人们普遍更喜欢中性信息源提供的与决策相关的信息。只关注积极（快乐）和消极（愤怒）面孔之间的差异，研究结果与与年龄相关的正性效应一致（即，对于老年人而言，快乐和愤怒面孔之间的注视持续时间差异显著大于年轻人）。这些发现强调了中性信息在所有年龄段的重要性。因此，大多数关于正性效应的研究可能存在偏差，因为它们没有考虑到对中性信息的强烈偏好超过了对积极信息的偏好。
