Study: Emotional experiences & positivity increase with age
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Prayagraj: One must have observed that a youngster often gets angry or irritated and may not be as composed compared to someone in their mid-40s or 50s. The latter would be more positive when it comes to emotions and feel satisfied with whatever life has given them.
A recent study conducted by researchers Richa Nigam and Prof Bhoomika Rastogi Kar of the Centre of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences (CBCS) of Allahabad University has offered fresh insights into how emotional experiences and regulation evolve with age. Published in Science Direct (Elsevier), the study tested the positivity effect related to emotional ageing in the Indian context. According to this theory, there is a shift in emotional goals with age despite the normal age-related decline in physical and cognitive health.
This comprehensive study assessed emotional patterns in everyday life among young, middle-aged, and older adults using a multi-method approach. Participants were tracked through daily phone surveys over three weeks, rating their affective experiences at different times of the day. This was followed by detailed self-report measures on preference for emotional valence and a lab-based reaction-time task designed to measure emotional processing.
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One of the key findings was that, regardless of age, participants preferred positive emotions over negative ones. However, middle-aged and older adults reported significantly more positive emotional experiences than younger adults. According to the researchers, this may be because older individuals tend to focus more on meaningful, emotionally satisfying experiences, possibly due to a natural shift in affective priorities with age.
Interestingly, while studies in Western cultures often find that people experience mixed emotions (like feeling happy and sad simultaneously), this phenomenon was relatively rare among Indian participants. Moreover, choosing to feel negative emotions deliberately was uncommon across all age groups in the Indian context. The study also found that with age, we develop increasingly distinct representations of positive and negative emotions.
Older adults showed stronger associations with emotions like joy, interest, and contentment, and lower intensity or frequency of emotions like anger and tiredness. This indicates a cognitive and emotional maturity where emotions are not only better managed but also more distinctly categorised.
For younger adults, however, emotions were more intertwined. Their daily emotional experiences were more influenced by negative feelings, with less clarity in distinguishing positive and negative emotions.
"This study highlights how emotional preferences evolve with age in the Indian context," said Head CBCS, Prof Kar, who is the corresponding author of this paper. "Older adults demonstrate a shift toward positivity, emphasising emotional well-being and these effects are observed starting from mid-life. ," she added. Our current work at the neuroimaging facility at the Centre looks at the neural correlates of this interaction.
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